Dig into tracker-miner-fs, d-bus activation re-parenting, as well as the snap callbacks that can trigger arbitrary local code execution. Usually found in a directory under /usr/libexec in addition to its regular install location, not touching on the spiderweb of cross-connections.

If you try to remove or pull out parts of those distro integrations in Ubuntu, you will find that it keeps launching, despite making a clear choice for not wanting those features. There is a spiderweb of cross connections where if you shut down various parts, it fixes and regenerates its capabilities... like malware.

They clearly aren't giving people the choice to do what they want on their own hardware.

tracker-miner-fs collects metadata, and Recall is just an accessible interface to metadata that is already collected. The underlying metadata is for the most part similar.

You will find this also in the package repository where they have named packages, that those packages have been corrupted in a way that makes the corrupt packages indistinct from their legitimate counterparts (to the package manager), the manager launches fixup scripts without notification, and which are embedded to force and regenerate your use of snap.

Debian is certainly not immune since tracker-miner-fs is embedded in Gnome.

As for hardware, that is also incorrect. There are very few manufacturers that meet full compatibility requirements, they may allow you to boot into a shell (only as a result of the linux kernel devs), but compatibility for standard desktop or server use is not guaranteed.

The manufacturers that dominate the market are those who use proprietary firmware blobs through an embedded intermediate firmware based controller. The ideapad lines of Lenovo, and their many off-name rebrandings attest to the hardware compatibility issues even after significant re-engineering effort done to make it compatible still leaves features lacking.

When your thermal subsystem cannot expose temperature, power management, or has severe hysteresis gaps, lack of proper enumeration and lack of control of fans/advanced features, its hard to believe it doesn't cause trouble.

That's like saying a flaming pile of brick in your lap doesn't cause trouble. Research fails in the absence of source of truth information.

Manufacturers regularly omit, misadvertise/misinform, or don't provide documentation at all (i.e. WD with SMR), or correct technical specs to evaluate it prior to a buy, test, return strategy (which isn't research) and a risky approach.

I think you should take more than a cursory look around at the current market. Its pretty bad, expensive (for the circuitry involved) and with few choices.