I think it bares mentioning to other users to never perform a system update if you are working on a time critical project for work/school.
We often recieve frantic help requests from users demanding we fix their system because they urgently need to access a project they were working on. Generally, if your data is mission critical, you need to back it up properly on at least a daily basis. If the work is super important and you cannot afford to lose a full day's work, then you should really be backing it up on an hourly basis. Rarely are system updates so critical that they cannot be delayed (if you cannot tolerate an update breakage during your project).
Please don't get upset at the distro if your machine can't access an important project you've been working on. If your project is genuinely mission critical you need to back it up regularly. Be sure the backups are stored on an external drive or preferably in the cloud where it will always be accessible. The distro is not to blame if you cannot access your important data. The user is responsible for ensuring the integrity of their data, not the distro.
Just a word to the wise, you can never make too many backups. A penny of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
As you are no longer using Garuda I guess we can close this thread out now. Good luck with your new distro. 