I know most Linux die-hards probably think it's sacrilege but the best Linux experience on a tablet is ChromeOS.

You can enable Linux apps in settings, and it gives you a Debian terminal. If you install apps there (ex: GIMP or VS Code) app icons show up in the ChromeOS launcher, and it uses Wayland forwarding to integrate their windows into the ChromeOS Window manager so they feel native.

And as far as tablet interface goes, the UI is a bit less polished than Android but similar and (IMO) very competent. Way better than Gnome and friends. Oh, and you can install any Android app you want!

I use my Lenovo Duet a ton now. Only thing holding back this particular device is ARM compat with some dev tools.

You mean ChromiumOS? Last time I tried, the driver support on hardware not officially recognized was horrible.

There's no official, user-friendly way to install ChromiumOS yourself. A company called Neverware provides ISOs for x86 PC's but like you say the drivers are spotty and these releases lag behind ChromeOS. I'm not even sure what tablet devices are out there that you'd _want_ to install ChromiumOS on yourself? Maybe a Surface? These don't even have mainline Linux support (https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface exists though).

ChromeOS on a device like the Duet is a nice experience however, and still let's you get a Debian shell like I described.