I started out on Ubuntu back when it was basically just Debian with more stuff preconfigured and newer packages.
So I’m intimately familiar with the .deb ecosystem.
Moved away from Ubuntu when they started trying to push their own solutions over accepted standards (Unity, Upstart, Snap) and included ads in their OS.
Moving downstream to a Ubuntu-based distro felt wrong so I moved upstream to Debian instead.

I don’t think it’s the best distro out there in all respects, but it’s rock solid, dependable, predictable and I know it inside out.
Plus, it lets you choose how up-to-date vs. stable you want it to be, with its testing and unstable branches, backports, apt-pinning and third-party support. And also, how bare-bones you want it to be, since it offers a minimal installation with less hassle than Arch as well as a full bells-and-whistles system with its default installation.