I have the same confusion, although I will say the only time I've EVER had a problem with nvidia drivers it was when I installed it through the package manager.

I have the same confusion, although I will say the only time I've EVER had a problem with nvidia drivers it was when I installed it through the package manager. When I install them myself by running the scripts that nvidia gives you, I've never had a problem with the drivers. I've always suspected that was the problem, the way the distro's package the drivers, rather than being a problem with the drivers themselves.