I have had the exact experience you're describing, as a Linux noob. I used Ubuntu Cinnamon for a while, and it worked well OOTB but it also felt a bit too much like using a Mac or something. Very streamlined, not as customizable, it didn't really inspire you to go out learning how Linux works. Plus all of the things I've heard about Red Hat made me want to make a change, and EndeavourOS has been awesome. It's incredibly fast and lightweight, and I've been able to configure it to do just about everything I want to so far. If it fails short, it only ever really seems to be just a lack of knowledge on my part.
I'm generally great at traversing my house quietly, unless my fiance or child are asleep, and then I'm a fucking cave beast making as much noise as humanly possible, seemingly.
I imagine the measurement is something like "perception of sound to the human ear". A rock concert is generally very loud and whether you're 5 feet back or 30 feet back from the stage won't make a huge difference
I recently used mv on a folder containing a massive quantity and size of files, and it completed the operation in like a second. I'm used to windows taking forever to do the same thing