Thinkpads are not monolithic amongst models. That is, they are very customisable when ordering, so two Thinkpad P53s (say) will not necessarily be identical.

I usually restrict my choices when ordering a Thinkpad to Intel and Intel peripherals as much as possible. As Intel hardware has the most support in Linux.

I find also that I have used Mint Mate almost exclusively for the last 10 or more years.

Between those two factors, it means I have had practically no configuration problems to speak of.

(I subscribe to the old policy of: Application software choices determine the choice of Operating System. The choice of Operating System determines the choice of hardware. SO NOT VICE-VERSA - don't buy the hardware first then try to work out what you're going to run on it.)

Yep, Ubuntu is very bad now. But a lot of this comes down to hardware. The drivers are in the kernel, after all, and all distros use essentially the exact same kernel. Companies like Lenovo support Linux but I don't think they put much effort into making it a daily-driver for a normal home user. It's more of a business thing. The exception is System76.

All user friendly and good hardware support out of the box: Mint, Elementary OS, PopOS, ZorinOS

Has elementary improved from when I last used it a few years ago? Felt like a standard arch install configured nicely. Things looked great but broke frequently.

I've heard mixed things about ZorinOS including things being less-than-open and fragile too?

Mint and Pop though I should check out