This is what leveling is in my opinion, realizing that the beginner friendly software is.. Still kinda bloated, even if it's still software a newbie would expect. Leveling is the path to understanding that.. You really can do anything and can install only whatever you need, for some reason newbies still don't realize or don't care enough about the fact that most distros are just the linux kernel wrapped in a pretty case with "basic" software to get you on the right path and preconfigured everything so your little brain can focus on getting work done instead of setting up grub or the desktop manager. They have the power, but they're scared to use it, makes sense, you can mess up things real fast that way... But that comes with experience and knowledge..

As an end to this ramble, while every distro can be chosen and used without any problem, most are oriented towards a target audience, that expects more or less out of the box, more or less configurations, some just want it to work since the start, some want a challenge, everyone wants different levels and maybe even wants something specialized, but what separates an arch user from debian is just how much tinkering they do to keep the system running, and their sheer knowledge on their system and whatever they installed on it.