Most of the "looks" come from the compositor (picom) and the bar.
SmallAlmond
I call my desktop loseldoom but my servers are fugit and opti :P
occ files:scan --all (or something like that)
"mLauncher" from Fdroid, it is a fork of OlauncherCF
I'm like you pretty new to all of this, but one thing I now is that you shouldn't use steamunlocked. (It is discouraged on the megathread)
When I had reddit (deleted a few years ago), I posted a screenshot of my android launcher, and someone pointed out that I was using google apps, and said "protect your privacy", he gave me some resources and that's where it all clicked for me. What a nice guy.
It's a piped frontend, so only piped accounts. (Piped is a frontend for YouTube)
Bonus: Instance and community
Decentralization is king here
Linux mint is in my opinion the best distro for a new user, but you may personally not be fond of the UI.
I don't know how to write a guide for you, but if you have more specific questions feel free to ask them, best of luck!
wouldn't yearly be too frequent?
packet loss lol