I don’t actually care, but when I have in the past (around 2006 era) it “just worked”, while other distros i was using required more hand holding (gentoo, redhat, slackware). I suspect most distros are just fine now a days (using debian now and it seems just fine).

I am not currently using it but it’s always been fine whenever I have. What’s broken?

I’m not disagreeing with your premise, but the statement about Diebold atms being flawless is not true https://www.wired.com/story/vss-atm-vulnerabilities-defcon-2024/

Performative is not the word you intended, but may be apt.

I’ve heard this from others but don’t see meaningful difference myself

My understanding is that ffmpeg is the bedrock that all video streaming services use. I’m suspicious it’s a bigger deal than you think