I think it depends on your use case. For my gaming desktop I use Fedora to get the latest packages. For professional scenarios I’ve been using Almalinux the past couple of years. It started life as a RHEL clone, but since RHEL changed their code distribution rules I see them more parallel in the stream rather than down. It’s completely free, but there are options to purchase support and live kernel patching if required.
If you want to go the Suse route, Opensuse Leap will give you the closest experience to Suse enterprise. I believe Suse actually offers conversion tools to convert Leap to the full enterprise OS. I don’t have personal experience with it, but have considered it in the past and this is the information I recall.
Proton has a free package with unlimited bandwidth. It doesn’t offer as many countries or advanced features but it works just fine.