No systemd.

a 2 year break

I've been using linux as my primary OS since the late OOs and my advice is to go with something easy and well supported. I use Fedora since I need to know RedHat tools at work. First get started and stay using a mainstream distribution.

I hate the design philosophy of systemd, but I'm not going to go out of my way to fight it. I am more than capable of setting up any distribution I want, but it usually isn't worth the time. I have virtual machines and embedded stuff running non-systemd distributions, but that is because it offers other compelling advantages for those particular installations. On a modern PC, I would just suggest picking an easy to use distribution and running with it for a few years.

If you pick Fedora, I'm sure I can answer reasonable questions. Ubuntu is also well supported and easy to use. I'm just less experienced with it. I have several machines running with Ubuntu LTS because that is what was tested with the particular hardware or software I needed to run.

Any package manager can be kept stable assuming a well supported upstream and non-bleeding edge software. I've got a debian box that been stable with apt for well over a decade plugging along with no issues.