A bit late to this thread. If you are still working on it, here are some things you can experiment with:
-Before building an ISO, you could try with building your own spin of Linux. A good way would to start is with base Arch Linux + LTS Kernel, choose your shell (bash/ash/zsh), pick between X11/Wayland, terminal emulators (Terminator/Alacritty etc), build your tools/packages etc. Try daily driving that system for a while and see how it works out for you. Documentation of Arch Linux is top notch.
Once you are comfortable, you can build your own ISO spin. If based on arch, you can check out Archiso.