Arch takes a lot of manual configuration to make it work, hence providing some bragging rights about using it. Manjaro is a fork that has your typical GUI user-frienly installer that does everything for you, therefore you "proudly using arch" has no substance as you did zero work.
I wonder why I keep getting the advice to use Arch, then? Everyone on the Linux forum questions me using fedora and says arch makes more sense and is easier.
It's the latest craze among the DIY Linux crowd. Like what gentoo used to be. It has a very opinionated fanbase so they will advertise whenever they see an opening. Hence the "I use arch "btw meme
It's just weird that they specifically mentioned it was easier for beginners when it seems like it's the exact opposite from what I've personally experienced on SteamOS versus my laptop that runs Nobara.
Some of the Arch variants are very easy to use. E.g. Manaro and Garuda give you the ease that Fedora does but with the 'bragging rights' of Arch. Except like this meme is pointing out they aren't considered 'pure Arch' by many.
I've installed Arch manually before several times but I got fed up of the process and now use ArcoLinux on my latest laptop. It makes install easy and I know enough to fix any issues from past experience.
NB: Arch has been rock solid for a good 10yrs for me.
Because Manjaro isnt exactly as it seems. Sometimes it's the worst of both worlds. I wont deny that it is convenient but (Rant alert) :
The idea of delay Arch packages for testing seems nice at first, until you take in the fact Manjaro will have to push some of the packages out before that period for e.g: security reasons, while some might take longer. The thing is, upstream Arch repo is designed to work together only on the packages upstream version, and as per Archwiki said, partial upgrade is highly unrecommended, and it is not uncommon to update your manjarobox and everything went smoothly, until you reboot and fallen into a dependency hell. Sometimes it can cause serious security issues. And with that in mind, the AUR also works with the assumption that you are on Arch's upstream packages, not Manjaro one, and well, dont need to tell you how it can cause problems down the line.
If you want a good convenient no "nerd" fuss distros, I recommend Pop!OS, Mint, or even Debian. If you really want to use AUR (trust me it's not as special as most expect, you generally only want to go there when you must) and really don't wanna use Arch, there's projects like Antergos, Artix,... that have much more sane approach.
I acknowledge tho that I 100% believe Manjaro users can get perfectly stable experience, and these things I mentioned had never be inside their scope. It's just you can get very similar experience with better management even in Arch-derived space, so why not go for those instead?
If arch Linux is supposed to be edgy and hard to use or install, Manjaro takes that edgy hard to use image and softens it up into a Ubuntu type distro that is based on arch but tends to run behind on updates by a little bit compared to arch.
Basically they nerd version of Linux stolen valor.