I find steam os to be very user friendly

Pretty much everything will work better with the system specifically design for that particular hardware. The only reason you might want to remove steamos is if you have high privacy/security concerns

I would stick with SteamOS personally. If you do want an alternative, check out Bazzite. It aims to be a closer alternative to SteamOS.

I love Arch, so SteamOS it is. If I were you, I would just make sure I know how to get SteamOS reinstalled properly. Then just check out the Nobara OS yourself. You'll never truly know until it is in your hands.

Stay on steamOS.

there's also bazzite. (fedora based on uBlue, uses kde)

But I see no reason for myself to switch away from SteamOS.

I am using bazzite on my gaming desktop PC. It does a good job.

If you switch away from steamOS you may not find as many places with people to chat with for support.

As a chronic tinkerer, I'm shocked that I haven't loaded another OS on my deck, but I truly see no reason to do so.

I've looked at what's doable but not tried. I've come to the conclusion that as a bespoke bit of gaming hardware I'd rather have the bespoke software to go with it. If nothing else, I like the feeling that the "deck verified" emblem for my steam games applies, and when troubleshooting other games there are lots of people with exactly the same software and hardware as me to find help from.

I like tinkering my steam deck is primarily a gaming device and I like that it just works when I want to use it.

Kubuntu with conical garbage removes.

PopOS and nebora was the worst performing OS I used in my system.

Personally I'd stick with SteamOS. It's tailor made for the hardware. Nobara is cool, but I don't think you benefit from it much (unless you really don't want the locked filesystem).