Jesus i worked at exactly this kind of project once. The only other dev was also very hostile and protective of this position. He did not want me there in the slightest. Took about 6 months before we cancelled the contract since this dude was just actively harrassing me in Teams DMs on the daily and he just ignored all my concerns regarding maintainability since “he could understand the code” and i was probably just “not experienced enough”.
Don’t downplay what this does to your mental health. 5 years of workplaces like this and I’m now starting to see a therapist due to exhaustion disorder symptoms in my goddamn 20s. Take care our there!
Only downside ive seen with Debian is slower rollouts and some packages missing in their repos. Its because they prioritize stability.
If Debian fits your use case theres no reason not to stay. I ditched Debian after I accidentally created my frankendebian monster which i was way too unknowledgable to save back then.
And hey, welcome to Linux!