How is Debian GNU/Linux as desktop distro?

That's slackware.
I see a lot of Debian users in desktop threads, and the most popular script kiddie distro (Kali) is based off Debian.

You'll need to perform additional steps if you have any Realtek network card or other hardware with non-free drivers.

How are you this mentally ill?

It is the right choice for me.

fine
ran it on my laptop while I was in school, no problems

At least in my gtx 960 it doesn't work (and I've read online that it's because the gpu drivers). It's the only distro I've had a problem with (and I've used distros without graphical installers like arch and void).
After the installation, when booting, a non-tty prompt pops out, that doesn't reed any bash commands.
why do you say that?

pretty solid, but it has many old, outdated packages, don't expect anything bleeding edge. Also some bugs with running XFCE

werks on my gtx 1060. Post install works too.

It's been a long time since I've used a non-rolling release distro. When the new version of debian comes out, can you update it or do you have to reinstall it?

This.