Aha I new I wasn't imagining things when I had to install linux specifically when setting up Arch Linux on Vultr the other day: https://www.archlinux.org/news/base-group-replaced-by-mandatory-base-package-manual-intervention-required/
Thinkpad X260/X270 actually satisfies every single one of the requirements I have for an ideal laptop while being more powerful than my current laptop. Oh my!
Migrating old repositories away from Github. Unfortunately Github account is still required for quite a few services, so I will likely keep the account.