Syncing over iCloud drive works well (Obsidian, iOS).

I've heard good things about Arch. Indeed, I installed it on one of my boxes, where I specifically wanted to avoid a lot of compilations, besides being curious about it.

Used it for a bit over a year know and... I don't know, it hasn't been as stable, and I've find using AUR more of a chore than custom ebuild repos. It's probably great when you get used to it, but so far I still prefer Gentoo.

It's great, that there are several good distros for different use cases, and that we have the freedom to choose what suits us best!

The question you ask in the title is a more general one that you ask in the title.

Yes, Gentoo is a good choice.

No, it is not worth compiling every package. This should not be the main reason you choose Gentoo.

Admittedly, I started with Gentoo for the same reason (per-package compilation), hoping for performance gains. However, I stayed because of the excellent documentation, the great user community; the rolling versions; the customizability and control I have over my system, the choices I need to make when installing, and keep making as the install is continuously set up over the years.

I’ve tried quite a few distros over the (+20) years of Linux-use. I keep choosing Gentoo.