My personal opinion: it's largely a matter of taste. I switch every few years, and I've tried many different distributions. I mostly appreciate a simple desktop without over-the-top animations and with a simple menu button. But most of the time I'm using a terminal anyway.
Does anyone maintain any other guides for different distros?
I don't see the point making them for Bitcointalk, when there are much better guides out there.
Im interested in mostly a Bitcoin Core node to form transaction in a desktop install, and a watch-only wallet to broadcast them and check funds, and do this through Tor with a laptop.
In that case: do you really need full disk encryption? You can encrypt your home directory with one tickbox.