This blog by Vermaden is probably one of the most cited in the FreeBSD community when someone in a forum/subreddit asks why FreeBSD. I think it does a good job encapsulating the reasons one would choose FreeBSD over Linux or other OS’s.
I’ve become more partial to the *BSD’s in the past couple of years and respect what each one brings. I do daily drive Debian tho ;)
lack of hardware support is a huge problem. FWIW, if you have a thinkpad, OpenBSD should work on it no problem. Free/NetBSD will work on Thinkpads with some minor tuning.
What you said about performance re: FreeBSD v Linux tracks with what I’ve read. Basically, those who know are capable of tuning FreeBSD to their needs, and can make it as performant (or more so) than Linux. Re: graphics, that’s something to research before using any BSD.
I think the biggest advantage of FreeBSD is still storage; ZFS and boot environments are a huge deal. BTRFS is just behind ZFS in this regard. I also like the stability that FreeBSD provides. Linux changes very rapidly and this can be a problem for some.
I will say that I think FreeBSD is way behind in innovating. A lot of their pros (jails, ZFS, boot environments) come from Solaris, or are being equaled by linux (networking performance, as an example).