My comment is specifically about drivers. I've used Linux exclusively since the 90s after leaving OS/2 Warp and rarely encountered a driver-related instability

My comment is specifically about drivers. I've used Linux exclusively since the 90s after leaving OS/2 Warp and rarely encountered a driver-related instability issue with any actual supported by mainline hardware. The few which come to mind had to do with NIC drivers requiring disabling offload features, or link rate auto-negotiation failures. Your problem sounds like a non-specific distro update bug. Don't even get me started on my mother's current Win11 machine that breaks its USB printer on every.single.update.