hot take: ubuntu is the manjaro of debian
if you're looking for "debian but easier", this ain't it; debian already has an installer, stable branches, and everything you'd expect from ubuntu, so I'd just recommend going straight to the source
if you're looking more generally for a "beginner-friendly" distro, to be honest I'm not sure there is a good answer to that question
if you just want to use your computer and aren't interested in tinkering, I'm afraid linux might not be for you
I don't mean this in a gatekeepy way, but rather that linux requires technical knowledge and work to maintain properly, and so far no distro has managed to solve that (but immutable distros are moving in the right direction)
if you are willing to put in the effort, then in my opinion, seemingly "friendly" distros will only slow you down in your learning process, because they hide the technical aspects, and are no better than windows in that regard
diy-type distros such as arch are much better teachers, because they encourage you to get your hands dirty
their learning curve is far steeper, but if you're technically-inclined, then you shouldn't face too much trouble
on that front, debian may be good if you're experienced, but because they modify the software they distribute so much, it might be a little weird and I would generally recommend learning to use the upstream versions before you specialize in a specific distro
of course, all of this is entirely subjective, but having over a decade of experience with linux this is my advice to anyone who's interested in it
don't be afraid to experiment, mess around in VMs if you have to, try out several distros if you're unsure which one to choose, and most importantly, have a good time
