Counter point: The removal of your desktop environment should not under any circumstances be within the possibility space of side effects for trying to install a common piece of desktop software, regardless of the warnings provided or confirmations required.
This was an issue with the OS, and the Pop_OS! team fixed it in an update very soon after this. A month earlier or later and Linus would not have encountered it.
Counter point: The removal of your desktop environment should not under any circumstances be within the possibility space of side effects for trying to install a common piece of desktop software, regardless of the warnings provided or confirmations required.
This was an issue with the OS, and the Pop_OS! team fixed it in an update very soon after this. A month earlier or later and Linus would not have encountered it.