So all this does is create a black market for tech. People with the knowledge of how to set up this technology will provide it as a service for those who don't.

It's the same as trying to outright ban drugs. Those who can provide for those who cannot (for a fee).

I'm in the same boat as OP. I just don't understand why one distro over another. I guess the next questions would be - what made you choose Debian for one PC and Fedora for the other? Do you find that openSUSE works better on a laptop than other distros? If the experience is the same, why not have them all the same distro? Do you just choose a distro on a whim? Roll a dice? Flip a coin?