The quickest way to get the right answer in any community, in my experience, is to provide the wrong answer. People will come out of the woodwork to correct you.
There are administration tools available for system deployment but they're generally closed source and limited to the software selection available.
Unsure about command line, but PC Decrapifier is useful for removing preloaded software.
Ninite is useful to install software in batch.
Ninite can also install Malwarebytes, which is quite useful.
Between Windows Defender and Malwarebytes I generally don't recommend anything else. And then Malwarebytes, which is extremely effective for free, is the only security suite worth paying for if you want to "set it and forget it".
On the Microsoft side of things, a great deal of software can be deployed via command line.
It's possible to build an offline installer for Office and Office 365 for example via the office deployment tool.
Additionally, it looks like if you pay for Ninite Pro, it supports command line.
I generally seem to have had a good experience with Linux Mint. I use the cinnamon version.
Even dist upgrades don't seem to be too much trouble.
I used to main Gentoo but that was a lot of work.
I still miss it though, but that was almost 20 years ago, when I was unemployed, and had more free time than money.
I run Windows 10 on my personal laptop and I look at these changes for the sake of change and I am seriously considering wiping it and not just use Linux in a VM.
Toxic linux communities moment:
Original Comic: https://thejenkinscomic.wordpress.com/
Not a Coincidence ( lemm.ee )
you don't need more 4GB of RAM ( lemmy.dbzer0.com )
The fix is scheduled for the next release ( lemmy.blahaj.zone )
Image text: "Fact: 90% of Linux users switch back to windows right before all their problems are about to be fixed"
Text editor war ( lemmy.ml )
Low quality meme