Although all Linux distros are built upon the same core, some versions do better than others for certain tasks.

For example, my wife and I have separate computers. She likes to run Runescape on hers. To date, I’ve only found Ubuntu to be able to handle Runescape graphics. (Probably Linux Mint also.)

I like to watch Netflix and Amazon videos. There are a lot of distros that support that, but not all. I am presently running the KDE flare of Fedora 28 on my machine, and this suits my needs perfectly.

Now, if you like to fiddle and have a basic understanding of how software compliments other software, you could probably get any version of Linux to do what any other version of Linux does, regardless of distro (as you point out). But I see it as easier just to pick a distro that suits your purposes best, install that and run with it.