which linux distro do you NOT like, and why?

You could look into endeavour OS. It's arch-based, but closer to plain arch than manjaro. It should let you choose which kernel version to use. Another option might be garuda linux. It's a arch-based gaming-focused distro. So it should be flexible as well, but it did break frequently on my system back when I tried it out. Otherwise Alma Linux (Red Hat based) might be running older kernel versions as well.