Yes there is, but most of what you're complaining about is in fact nothing more than DE itself. As for the software, most if not all can be added if you just look for it. But that goes against your statement that you feel the "Pro" versions are bloated. So I'm a bit confused, as to why you're saying they should have more things, but then state the Pro versions are bloated.
You do realize all of those apps were available and made by someone else, Yes? No? Warpinator for instance was Ubuntu. Hypnotix is a fork of an IPTV player that I use on my Android device. I suggest you actually google all those apps, you'll find where they came from and it wasn't from the distro. All distro's are nothing more than collection of other software, drivers, DE's, extensions,libraries brought together and packaged as one.
But to put all these apps in, goes back to my bloat comment above that you were saying.
NVIDIA support is going to be pretty much the same across distro's as long as the distro put in whatever limited drivers were available. Some don't put everything and you have to download them. NVIDIA never played well with Linux so regardless of what distro you were using everyone was on a pretty level playing field.
I learned a long long time ago to avoid anything NVIDIA and have not have had any issues since. We'll see how that changes since they're not releasing some things as open source.
The store is much better because Gnome 40 has an updated store not available on the other Gnome versions, because it is Gnome 40. You may see this same store in Zorin 17, but hopefully they will have moved away completely from Gnome by then. I can only hold out hope that Cinnamon will be the option available instead of Gnome, along with KDE.
As for the software, you will get the same software in it you would now if Ubuntu ported over all the same software to Gnome 40. All those PPA's you see in your settings are what sets which software you will see in the Gnome store. Since Zorin is based on Ubuntu the default will be Ubuntu and it will mainly be Flatpacks and Snaps. You could go the route of Linux Mint and block Snaps from the beginning. You also have the ability to uninstall Snaps and Snapd so they don't install again, however Zorin didn't go that route. But Zorin and Linux Mint and most every other Ubuntu based distro out there are all pulling from the same set of software under the Gnome Store. Many distro's including Zorin do have some software they maintain, but there is no way any distro can maintain that amount of software by themselves. Elementary OS doesn't give you all the PPA's for Ubuntu, but you can add them. What you think is better is nothing more than eye candy of the store gui. The newest and greatest version out is not always better.
And full disclosure I don't use the store, I installed Synaptic and I use that. I hate the store no matter the distro and find it to be a huge waste of time and resources.
Incorrect, that is what Ubuntu does, or Debian does.
The same once again can be asked of any other distro. The same could even be asked of Ubuntu, as it's nothing more than Debian with Gnome thrown on top of it by the same logic you're using with Zorin. Ubuntu is nothing more than Debian at its base, so is Linux Mint, Pop OS, Elementary OS, even Zorin they all just went through Ubuntu first.
Well I don't have any trouble with Zorin, yet I did have trouble with various drivers for this and that when using Ubuntu directly. So clearly it is more than just fiddling with the DE and adding apps. I also hate the Ubuntu DE layout. Which is yet another reason why I use Cinnamon.
And just because you can throw a piece of software or extension onto something, doesn't mean it will work correctly. You have to make sure you have the right drivers and libraries for it to work correctly. The piece of software also needs to be maintained, if it isn't then prepare yourself for it breaking in a subsequent release.
As for their desktop not every distro is going to go around creating their own desktop, the reason Linux Mint created Cinnamon had to do with Gnome many years ago. PopOS's cosmic is nothing more than Gnome with a bunch of extensions and to be quite honest I was not impressed with PopOS at all.
Elementary OS calls their DE Pantheon, which is built on top of..... wait for it..... Gnome. It's nothing more than Gnome forked, prodded and full of extensions. And uses Ubuntu as its base as well.
So what you're using as examples of other distro's creating their own DE's is nothing more than the same thing Zorin did, yet you're saying they're not creative enough. The only difference is Zorin didn't give it a cute little name, they just used Gnome. The exception to that is Linux Mint with Cinnamon, but that is a whole different issue though.
I agree with you that Snaps should be disabled from the start like Linux Mint does with them. But I'm not really a fan of Flatpaks either. I'm also old school and never saw a problem with just using deb's or rpm's as the two default package managers.
But it isn't hard for people to remove Snap from the system either, it's a simple command