I was in exactly your situation -- longtime macOS user who wanted to migrate because of the decline in hardware quality. (And software quality, too.) I looked

I was in exactly your situation -- longtime macOS user who wanted to migrate because of the decline in hardware quality. (And software quality, too.) I looked around a lot and bought a System76 Darter running PopOS. The specs blow MBPs out of the water, and for much lower cost. After a couple of months, I'm very happy with it. The case and screen aren't quite as nice as a Mac, but they keyboard is fantastic, a little better than the best MBPs. The touchpad is pretty good, if too sensitive while I'm typing. PopOS is by far the best-looking Linux I've ever seen, and customization using Gnome extensions is very easy. A friend got a Thinkpad for Linux, and while it looks very nice, I have no experience using it.