What did you see that made you think he was a shill/tool? All I see is someone explaining why they don’t think a specific distro is good for beginners.
Why is that an easy block? The user you responded to was cordial, laid out his reasons and even provided some sources to corroborate. What exactly did he do wrong in your mind?
When you say it seems to have better HDR, is that deduced from watching the video or looking at these screen shots? Because if we’re talking about the screen shots I’d have to disagree.
Depends what “much” is but there can be a measurable difference if the distro comes with it’s own kernel, like cachyos.
Between different distros on the same kernel the difference in performance is negligible.