As of now I think this is it so far:
Gentoo: 1
Arch: 2(the only thing not customizable is systemd)
Artix: 2^
Void: 4(wish the license were free tho)
Debian: 5(updates are in favor of stability, which put it low, and should I mention systemd)
Devuan: 6^
…
Mint: 2nd Last
And the loser is
Ubuntu.
BSD licence is more free than the GNU licence?
Yes if you reverse the stability scale , you get flexibility.
Where does Solus fit? About 4 to 5?
Neville.
I Believe it all boils down to what you want from you Computer one of the reasons there are so many varying Distros is that each of us looks for different things. Some want stability at the expense of the newest packages. Some want cutting edge. Others want a gaming machine and still others some specialty purpose. So no one distro is likely to satisfy everyone. The one great thing about Linux is you have choices and if you choose you can even change your mind and try something new. So all this talk of which is better is mostly just that talk. For what I find better, you may not and what you think is the best may be to me the worst. My advise is to try several differing Distros and choose the one that ticks most of the boxes that you need/want. There is no need for a war between distros.
I remember when Ubuntu first came out it was like a breath of fresh air but has in my opinion strayed from it’s original user base and thus I choose to use a different distro now. But it still is a good distro in it’s own right. I don’t have to like the Distro you choose and you don’t have to like the one I choose but I am thankfull we both have that choice. 
Solus would be on the lower half, as it is beginner oriented and not customization oriented.
Hahahahahaha I should’ve put linux from scratch over gentoo, but srsly, who actually uses linux from scratch?
Who uses Gentoo? I personally know nobody who uses it, except one or two people on this forum who had tried it out for the fun of it. I’ve never seen anyone use it for anything serious, except for those Kiosk distributions, etc. But not for home use.
Over the many years hopping around, settled now finally. Like you say everyone’s needs are different, depending on hardware too, which is a big factor especially Laptops. I was very lucky building my gaming machine, fretting that Linux would not work with my hardware Ryzen 5 2600, 16GB Ram, NVIDIA 3060, on a ASROCK B450 PRO 4 Motherboard. Once Linux installed, built another one. Touch wood and whistle never had a gripe with Linux on this hardware. The reason why I say Hardware matters, is I truly believe that the majority of errors and problems that people have, stems from compatibility issues with hardware. I wish they’d release what is inside the Kernel, as in ideal Kernel for different hardware. It all can’t be the same from Kernel to Kernel? Why release so many Kernels? To keep up with technology changes, but what I have seen is mainly security patches going into the Kernel, plus lots of AMD support.
Well this is a bit tongue in cheek, but anyone can access the source code
You can compile a kernel and then you get to choose which bits of hardware support are included. I have done it in past for FreeBSD but never for Linux. There just seems to be little need.
If you wanted to try compiling Linhx kernel, the easiest path would probably be to use Gentoo. It has all the choices laid out. You need a good knowledge of you hardware to be able to make choices in Gentoo.
Neville
OpenSuSE is designed for EVERYONE. Newbie to Expert, GUI to Command Line. Flexible is one word for it.
What is its package system like? That is the real heart of a distro.
How comprehensive is the repository?
How good are the download servers?
How good on the stability scale … do updates break it often?
I assume it is fixed release. Can you do a cross-release upgrade or do you have to do a new install?
Does it offer init systems other than systemd?
How uptodate are the packages… is it 18 months like Debian ?
Those are the things that worry me.
Cheers
Neville
Something interesting I found. Devuan + Manjaro = Elementary OS + Artix.
systemd, suse file manager, installs range by default, 
And I am probably the one @Akito is referring too, Gentoo runs well but comes with a lot of baggage, although it does perform well with old 32bit PC’s.
The one Distro for my personal needs, and what and how I wish to run Linux, is none other than PCLinuxOS.
Zypper is the software manager via command line. SystemD is at the heart of it. I don’t know if it offers other init systems. Speedy download servers. Repositories rival most distros with the PacMan repo for hard to get software, but still missing librewolf. YAST is the command lline AND GUI software manager also network, services, user, etc. manager. Tumbleweed is a rolling release and RARELY breaks. Leap is a LTS release and never breaks. You can upgrade from one LTS to another with the command line command zypper dup without having to reinstall the new OS. Leap is about a year behind
openSUSE Leap is openSUSE’s regular release, which is has the following estimated release cycle:
@TrekJunky
Thanks,
Sounds like OpenSUSE has a really well managed structure like Debian.
I would not mind experiencing that. The managers for packages are all foreign to me, but that is not to be feared, I will learn some new tricks.
I have 2 sorts of systems, stable and experimental. It would be a candidate for stable alongside Debian. Will look at init options
OpenSUSE only offers systemd init…like Debian…