custom-desktop VS unsnap

You might be interested to check out my project, Custom Desktop. It also focuses on delivering a vanilla GNOME experience, without snaps. It uses Firefox from the Linux Mint repository, and Chromium is also available. It's biggest strength is that it replaces the original ubuntu-desktop-minimal and ubuntu-desktop metapackages with custom ones, so the system does not fall apart every time a package is removed.

Check this out: https://github.com/natanjunges/custom-desktop. I have instructions there to install the native Firefox from the Linux Mint repository, which has full integration. You also need to install the dummy package ubuntu-system-adjustments that you can find in the releases page.

I don't know about the other questions, but if you remove snapd, you will also remove the desktop metapackages, which puts your entire desktop up for automatic removal. To prevent that, you would need to at least mark those desktop packages as manual, so they are not accidentally removed. For Ubuntu GNOME 21.10 (22.04 soon) I currently have a better solution, which replaces the default desktop metapackages with custom ones. It uses the vanilla GNOME and flatpak instead of snap: github.com/natanjunges/custom-desktop

Might I suggest unsnap?

This seems very similar to Alan Pope's unsnap project - Is there anything you're doing differently? https://github.com/popey/unsnap

If you are referring to this project, then I'm sorry to tell you that you got it wrong.

Reminder that if you don't like snaps, it's pretty easy to migrate away using: https://github.com/popey/unsnap

Might check out https://github.com/popey/unsnap

You can just use this to remove snap tho: https://github.com/popey/unsnap

How? Should I follow these instructions? https://github.com/popey/unsnap

The best Debian/Ubuntu-based distro that uses Plasma would probably be Kubuntu with unsnap if you're not a snap fan.

If snaps are your only issue, don't leave Ubuntu. Look into unsnap (https://github.com/popey/unsnap). Determine if your lag is snap related.

Snaps are so bad that one of Canonical's star employees left and tweeted about snap issues saying that "They get ignored or dismissed. The CTO flat doesn't believe there's a problem. The team is understanffed and there is no motivation from IoT and enterprise focused people to fix desktop problems. Been trying from the inside for years. I gave up hope and left.". Same guy later went on to create the unsnap repo on github which helps users find replacements for their snap packages among flatpaks etc - and this wasn't a "jaded employee" thing so much as him trying to look out for users' best interests. Good on him.