Also, all the arguments for market economies being useful and the typical supply/demand arguments completely break down for a product which is infinitely duplicatable for free

Just fyi, I found that aurora store often works a lot better if you log in with a google account. I know its not the best option for privacy but I kind of rely on some play store apps working and being updated and I still had a google account either way.

Also, do you have microg installed? Most google play apps work without much hassle for me on lineageOS microg

In my experience most problems with linux are at the intermediate level, i.e. things like setting up university/work vpn, installing games (with wine), getting used to different applications for office stuff. This is all stuff that many people have to do that can be hard to achieve if you only have guides for windows/mac