Are they so different that it's justified to have so many different distributions? So far I guess that different package manager are the reason that divides the linux community. One may be on KDE and one on GNOME but they can use each other's packages but usually you are bound to one manager
Yeah the smaller binaries is a big part too. I bet it feels like having your system hand-crafted just for you
It does. Unfortunately I don't spend as much time on my PC lately.
Also I still use binary blobs like Steam.