I usually go for gnome regardless of distribution. I have old laptop that i use to try distributions occasionally.
Same hardware, same desktop, same encrypted drive, same BTRFS choice, different responsiveness at times.
Systems heavy on flatpak tend to be noticeably slower.
Someone explained it to me this way:
If knife is a newest feature, then
Any snapshot distribution by definition is on bleeding edge.
Any rolling release is by definition on the cutting edge.