I use Xubuntu on my media server, and have never had that happen. I get a notification saying that the Firefox snap is going to update in 14 days, but closing the browser, updating, and reopening brings all my tabs and windows back. I get the same if I close the browser and restart the computer, letting the snaps update automatically.

I wonder if OP has got the restore open tabs setting turned off.

I've had no major issues with my Ubuntu distro. Snap updates work without closing any software - as far as I know. I just tested a snap refresh, but I didn't have any out-of-date software.

I would argue I push the boundaries of common Ubuntu usage as well. I have 8TB of mixed HDD and SSD storage which I use for gaming, Unity development, Blender, Plex server, and random programming projects (e.g. k8s cluster work). I don't have any major issues.

People complain a lot about Ubuntu and I just don't get it. It's a good software for the average consumer, in my opinion. My wife uses it for her computer and has pretty much no issues.

I do want to switch to Linux Mint someday since people are adamant that it's better than Ubuntu but I think I'll stick with Ubuntu since I've setup so many things on this machine and I don't want to redo this work.