The difference between Debian and other Linux distribution is, that Debian is working with a fixed release workflow. The only way to realize such a release cycle is with human intervention. That means, the latest update of ArchLinux (a famous rollling release distribution) can be created with a small team with less than 5 humans, while the latest update of Debian requires 1000 debian developers or more.
The effect of a stable release cycle is, that the distribution isn't solving problems but it is asking for manpower. That means, the debian ecosystem has a demand for new developers and maintainers. While rollling release systems like ArchLInux have a tendency to reject new users. Instead of analyzing what the better Linux distribution is, we have to go a step backward and describe how commercial software development is working.
The most famous operating system in the world is called Windows 10 and it is programmed and distributed by Microsoft. The interesting point of Microsoft is, that the company has arond 150k employees worldwide and the tendency is growing. This is a clear sign, that Microsoft isn't working very efficient like the ArchLinux and the Gentoo community but they are operating with stable release version. Which can only be created with human intervention. The thesis is, that Microsoft has become successful because it is not solving problems, but it is generating work which have to be solved by humans.
To make Linux distributions more successful, a community has to be created. The only way in creating a community is produce a workload for this community. Debian is great in creating new unfixed issues. While rollling release distributions like Antergos, Gentoo, Clear Linux and Arch Linux have a tendency to reduce the workfload, because the new version was created with an automated script.
Or let me explain it the other way around: it's not possible to create a growing community, if all the problems were solved by the package manager. And without a community, a Linux distribution will fail.