Honestly, if I couldn't wait, I'd go with Neon. There aren't many other options anyway. Other considerations could be Arch or KaOS. I don't know the timeframe for openSUSE Tumbleweed, however, they are usually super fast. It could be a matter of weeks when Plasma 6 will be offered if it's isn't already. If I could wait, Kubuntu 24.10 seems to be a reasonable choice (or any other distros you would consider that will ship Plasma 6 this year).

I wouldn't go with option 1. As far as I know, thy don't offer Plasma 6 yet and I don't know whether backporting Neon repos will work.

+1 kdenlive. However, I can see why it's no sufficient solution for everyone

If the risk of physical data theft is high, your data is at risk. If the risk of physical access to you machine is rather low, encryption might actually increases the risk of losing your data simply by the chance of losing the means to access your data (forgotten passphrase, lost hardware key...).

+1 Plasma. However, I don't dislike gnome. Gnome just doesn't fit my personal taste of workflow and customizability. Other that that, gnome did a pretty good job on the look and feel department. I feel at home on Plasma (and almost at home on xfce)

Void Linux +1

It's organized beautifully. The tools are lightweight and easy to use. The package manager is a joy to use, fast and lean. Partial updates won't break your system. It's rolling but not bleeding edge which provides robustness of the system. Runit, the init system, is also a joy to use. Super easy to use and minimal.

I currently like

• Nicco Loves Linux
• DJ Ware
• Destination Linux
• Michael Tunnell
• Linux Saloon

I sounds like you have to apply new cooling paste. This might be a pain to do on a laptop but certainly worth it. Another distro probably won't do the trick, whether it's minimal or not.