Also I think it's crucial to clarify that in my experience the vast majority of audio troubles on Linux are due to how buggy and shitty (and ubiquitous) Realtek

Also I think it's crucial to clarify that in my experience the vast majority of audio troubles on Linux are due to how buggy and shitty (and ubiquitous) Realtek soundcards are. Those integrated cards are junk, and they are buggy like hell, if you read the source code the drivers have to resort to doing what's basically black magic to get them to work, each single damn configuration has its own quirks, etc. This is also true for Realtek NICs though, almost everything those guys do is shitty as heck.