Welcome to nixers!
A lot of Linux distros cater to people seeking simplicity. Once I got tired of hopping distros I settled on the one I had the easiest time customizing, Arch.
But there are many alternatives. Alpine comes to mind as a small and simple distro.
To me, I don't want to struggle finding the correct libraries for stuff I want to compile. I even have trouble with that one Debian machines, which have huge repositories. Systems more niche than Linux therefore border on impracticality for me.
I would suggest just trying something like BSD out, and then seeing if it is right for you.
Good luck!