A steamos device should be very much plug and play. I don't know how good this would be in practice, but with a few clicks, non-steamos linux can be set to boot straight into steam's tv interface, which has the necessary ui for power off, system updates, etc.
This is all subjective, but because of nintendo's bs, switch 2 is their first console I have almost zero interest getting. If your kids specifically really want the switch, they'll be disappointed by anything else, but if not, I recommend looking into steam deck or other linux handhelds. There are lots of good PC games that fit the bill. Because of indie devs, the selection is should be a lot larger even.
Which guide did you follow? I have some experience in motherboard trimming, but this one doesn't make sense to me. Cutting through the northbridge seems unusual and very hard to get working.
I haven't bothered with icon theming, but I think icons are pretty much universally compatible.
On kde plasma and some other desktops you can change the icons in settings. If your de doesn't have that option, there should be (more or less janky) workarounds for that. Look up how to do that for your specific de.
Pretty much. Rust is very strict and explicit about everything, while typescript lets you kinda jam things together in ways that are very convenient but harder to keep track of in your head.
Expired certs sounds like admins failed maintenance.