You're right in jumping to the conclusion that I also switched. I didn't feel forced to switch, but I did feel like trying something else out. I can't speak for anyone else's reasoning. I have a perception that if I'm not using the defaults, I'm more likely to run in to problems with more difficult solutions.

The other question I asked myself: "If they are going to make changes in this manner, what else will they do?"

I figured there'd be less hassle in future with something more stable. I put Debian on out of curiosity as to how different Debian is from Ubuntu. I'd gone with Mint before but the one I got logged me in with no password required, which was a bit unsettling.