I am a very happy Arch (and sometimes NixOS) user but I am thrilled to know that Regolith leverages GNOME and i3 (I knew about Regolith using i3 but I didn't know it combined that with GNOME).
Gets me interested in getting my build setup like that!
I'm on Manjaro-i3-minimal from Mint+i3. Manjaro (Arch-based) seems so far a very good match. Minimal tweaking as most defaults are sane and looks good.
Most of the time was spent just to familiarize with Arch and find packages, which will pay off later.
I feel like Manjaro strikes a good balance at providing all the benefits of an Arch-based system without the downsides of stock Arch. For example, Arch's super newbie-unfriendly install process. Hopefully the archinstall script[1] now included in the official Arch ISO eventually becomes a more mainstream method of installing Arch -- but still allows for users like me to do the by-hand installation when I need custom/more flexible configuration.
I would say if someone is curious to give Arch a try but doesn't want to go through the installation process that they should give archinstall a try! In my opinion, the preset profiles (for GNOME, KDE, etc.) really removes a bunch of friction to using Arch if you are a new user or just want to save yourself time.
(I would imagine my views don't reflect the majority of the Arch community as it often seems like deliberate steps are taken to keep Arch as a gated community to those who are elite enough to invest in Arch 100%)
I get Arch. The docs are spot on. It's very polished and you can actually learn quite a bit.
However, for work, I need something not bleeding edge, and hope Manjaros tests and security test, will help in that regard. That it's a positive thing they wait about 2 weeks.
I had to tweak Manjaro a little, but so much worked out of the box. Don't have that dedicated time for ricing, though default installs in Arch seems very sanely configured.
It's interesting (to me at least) because I have ended up using Arch for all my personal servers and workstations and it has been pretty rock solid! Although, I typically use containers for running all the applications I care about -- which might lend to the stability I have seen with my systems.
Gets me interested in getting my build setup like that!