Pretty much any car brand will have stories like that. I've had zero issues with my Model 3 in four years so far. It's a perfectly fine car, but I won't buy another one because of Musk's recent antics.
There's a pretty good video about this by Not Just Bikes. Basically it says, the people who make these sort of decisions have a vested interest in more road construction because that pays their salary.
I second the VM approach. You can mess around, try different distros and generally just get a feel for the whole thing. If you want a dedicated machine, any old box will do. A cheap mini PC or whatever you have lying around. One of the great aspects of Linux is that a lot of old hardware that may look obsolete suddenly gets a new lease on life.
The first netbook (Asus EEE PC) ran Linux because Windows was too heavy for the processor it had. People predicted, this would be the year of the Linux desktop (ha ha ha). Then Microsoft came up with a cut down version of XP and basically gave it away for free. And you can bet your ass there was some shitfuckery going on behind closed doors. So from then on all netbooks ran Windows.
Oh and recently a company called Ayaneo wanted to put out a handheld with HoloISO (basically SteamOS). Then suddenly they announced it will run Windows. Again, I'll bet Microsoft pulled some strings.
Installing and Uninstalling stuff without user consent
Planned obsolesence
Trying of licenses to hardware
Just off the top of my head. The enshittification of Windows and the disenfranchisement of users has been going on for decades and it won't stop any time soon.
It needs to grow because monopolies are bad. Linux is the only thing that stands between us and being totally controlled by the tech giants. If you run Windows on your computer, it's not your computer.
Germany is already generating more than half its electricity from renewable sources. We'll be close to 100% before any of these white elephants ever even produce a single watt.
Banning abortion has always been his position. Libertarian my ass.