I second the recommendation of giving Linux Mint a shot. I didn't use XP extensively but Mint is low hassle and gets out of your way.

I'm not sure it has quite the same feel, but closest I can think of that is also approachable coming from Windows. Obviously a lot of other distros also satisfy the "built by engineers" vibe.

I have a lot of respect for Linux and use it here and there, but I am by no means an expert on it. The best thing I've done with it so far is running a Pi Hole at home.

Unfortunately, my job involves using MS Windows. A lot. After I retire...soonish...I hope to take some time and learn Linux better.

For my day-to-day Windows misery, I find that ShutUp10 does a great job of toggling off the bullshit you don't want running. And it's easy to toggle things back on if you ever need to. It's a free program you can download and run. I send them a little money every year out of gratitude, but donations are completely optional.

Some FUD mongers will tell you that ShutUp10 'breaks' Windows. That's simply not true. It puts all the Windows settings you can change yourself in one easy-to-find place. Things that are normally scattered all over the UX and the registry.

While you could mess some things up using it if you're not careful, it's very good about color coding and letting you know which toggles are best to turn off, which ones are a little questionable, and which ones you should leave turned on (unless you know what you're doing and can take the risk). I have used it for years now, on multiple PCs, with zero problems. It doesn't make Windows 10/11 GOOD but it makes them less horrible.

https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

Mint is the usual recommendation for transitioning from windows to Linux.

Zorin OS is a linux distro designed partly to feel like Windows

Any distro and a theme. Mate and XFCE work well for that style. Mint and LXQT maybe too.