Not a happy review from Distrowatch...

Did the reviewer try to install it on some laptop that came with Windows Vista originally? This review seems to try to be as negative as possible, which is weird. Leh gasp, the gnome desktop took up "a whole 1GB of ram". Then install xfce or mate dude.

Seems to me an inability to read plain text during the install.

For instance when you are asked to set the root password, it says that if you leave it blank, the user you'll create will have sudo.
That's the behavior you expect if you come from ubuntu or mint.

This feels like the reviewers expected Debian to create their own desktop environment between releases or something. The point of Debian has always been a stable experience, not to be flashy.

Unfortunate experience, and something I've never had happen with Debian. I've been on 12 for awhile. Of course I didn't clean install, just did a normal dist-upgrade and had no problems, as has been the case for the last decade or so on this machine.

Those installer problems are mysterious. I just installed Debian 12 with no issues, so in my book, being able to use WiFi from the outset was enough of an improvement to earn a couple big ol' thumbs up.