Gentoo user here. It can be great for dev as you have everything that is required to build the software you’re running assuming you’re trying to produce something using the same base. Ie C++ with Qt for KDE etc.
It’s also a lot easier to build your own repo and packages with than any dev setup I’ve seen, it’s literally just a text file.
It does take a while to compile. However you need opinions to use it… Otherwise you will just have useflags enabled on everything. It does require a bit of understanding of how linux is built but the guide does most of the work for you, and it’s easy to install on an existing system. If you’re using btrfs you can install it on a subvolume and try it out easy.
However I used it during the 00s and 20s… But not the 10s. The difference is that software is moving way too fast for distributions to keep up with, so you will definitely want to build your own ebuilds at some point. Emerge / portage can sometimes cause issues upgrading too. But nothing a btrfs snapshot can’t save you from.
But I think distro hopping is a great idea if you have the machines / time.