A lot of distro recommendation threads focus on the questions that novices think are important, but leave out the questions people would have after experiencing the differences (things that distro-hoppers might ask). As such, answers vary between “use _____, I found it very user friendly” and “use whatever, you can turn any distro into any other, and tweak it to your needs.”
What are some questions that newbies should ask when deciding on which distro to use as the basis for their system. Things like “what package manager suits my needs and how do I try out different ones without changing distros?” Or “what is a desktop environment/window manager, and how do I figure out which suits me?” Or “how does an init system affect my user experience as a newbie?” Or “how what are the choices made by such-and-such distro during install?”
Bonus points for also answering the questions you propose (I don’t have answers, picked a distro and stuck with it)
The only questions you really need to ask when picking a distro are which one aligns best with your effort, skill and preferences. To begin with prior to using any distro, those are very low and basic, so you want to start with a low effort quick and easy introduction to Linux. Start with a live distro to play around with. Then decide how much hand holding you need from there to choose which distro you actually want to commit to at the start. Then after weeks or months on that first distro, you will figure out what you like and dislike, which will guide your choices to move to the next distro. To begin with is all about learning and experimenting.