I recently bough a HifiBerry Pro DAC+ ADC for my raspberry pi.

That is when I remembered....

Linux is bad, but embedded Linux is worse.

I just wanted to connect via Bluetooth to a speaker and play sound through a microphone.

Unfortunately, after hours of configuring software, Bluetooth drivers and then testing python scripts with PyBluez, I still hate my life.

I guess the fancy new Linux GUIs (that compete with windows) really do not work correctly, because I swore the Bluetooth symbol was lit up in the top right.....

Kill me.

I recall that Bluetooth is an issue in non-Raspbian distros yeah... Maybe consider running Raspbian, other distros like Arch Linux ARM are a PITA when it comes to Bluetooth..

ARM Linux is a total piece of shit because the chaotic Linux architecture is not kept at bay like on x86 where at least the hardware is pretty standard. No, with ARM, every SoC is different, and Linux doesn't cope well with that.

If you think BT is bad, try graphics, that's even worse. The main reason why Linux still has made it on embedded ARM is that it's cheap - no royalties. As long as you produce enough units, it's cheaper to pay your devs to deal with that shit.

Oh, and that's also why "no updates". Because then the crap starts all over, but doesn't generate income.

Install Kodi on this RasPi and everything will work! Even Bluetooth can be configured through the GUI using a simple remote.