I have had the same Arch install for years where Ubuntu on the other hand breaks after 2-3 major version upgrades from accumulated cruft.
It is important to keep Arch updated but sometimes I go a month or two without doing it.
Occasionally they have some update that’s not backwards compatible and you have to be a bit careful about it but if it breaks someone already has the answer on the forums from earlier that week. You can also install “informant” which displays the latest arch news post before installing because they usually warn you when there’s a breaking change.
I bet he didn’t sell in May. He thought that short ride up was proof he made a good decision.