Yeah it’s definitely a thing.

LOL

I’m no expert but I think AMD hardware works pretty well with Linux. That’s what I went with in a recent build. AMD ryzen CPU and a Radeon based GPU, installed Pop!_OS (System76) and it has been very ‘snappy’ so far about 5 months in. I don’t use a touchpad so I can’t speak to that, but Pop sounds right up your alley since the company does their own hardware too.