After some....eh...."experiments" on my /etc/apt directory I...eh ... completely hosed my packetmanager and half of my desktop install on my main rig 
(yep, synaptic can't even make head or tail of my repository files.)
It seems to me that I will install 24.04 on my main rig much sooner than originally planned. 
When I first laid hands on Linux I used to deliberately test it to destruction, ("What does this button do?!") before formatting and starting again. You learned really quickly.
if you had enabled timeshift, you could revert to the old working env.
Oh yes, I can recognize myself in that. It is actually amazing how far the system can be destroyed and afterwards restored again just by invoking apt-get install ubuntu-mate-desktop 
This is not the first time I sabotaged my packetmanager.
Done it several times since I started with Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake.
I tend to get careless because the system will run anyway, my $HOME is on a separate partition and I have backups of everything, and now especially since I already planned a new install with 24.04 on april 26th (now running 22.04)
A reinstall including the packets I usually (automagically by script) install will cost my system about 20 minutes while I drink my coffee so it's not a big deal. 
That is absolutely true.
Alternatively, I also could have used tar to backup my /etc directory. 
Long ago I have chosen the path of automatic reinstalls. Even Ubuntu can accumulate some cruft after some years, so going fresh in has been my choice for the last six years or so. It's not as if this happens on a regular basis. 
There are only 3 small files I deploy on my root system after install and after running my app install script: My own written fancontrol-daemon for my AMD RX570 GPU and my setup and controlscripts for dnscrypt-proxy.
Me too. Multiple internal and external drives.
Mine take longer but since I don't reinstall so often these days that doesn't matter. I also find reinstalling quite relaxing.
It's fun too to explore the different options presented by the new version.
Mine too and for longer.