I’m sorry but I really can’t take any such take seriously. If you mean alsa, it may have worked (though let’s be honest, there was a painstakingly high amount of sound hardware that simply wasn’t supported well for decades, which was fixed over a similar timeline. “Linux sound bad” memes have been around way before PA became a thing), but the thing is, it is not adequate in itself for a typical desktop usecase, simple as that.