I believe an important reason why Arch is easier to maintain has to do with its minimal package customization: Applications already have their own learning cur

I believe an important reason why Arch is easier to maintain has to do with its minimal package customization: Applications already have their own learning curve, custom packaging only adds to this. Just reading the documentation or googling for answers may not be enough, one also needs to understand how and why packagers have changed things to be different from upstream. Personally, I prefer the Arch way of keeping package customization to the bare minimum. Combined with the very simple package format and powerful tools, Arch is a winner.