This became messy way too fast.
I went down a rabbit hole that was the wrong one!
The key issue here is that the current "noble" is Ubuntu based and thus is not Debian per say, especially with regards to "snaps".
So whoever reads this thread from the O/P I would say the solution is to hope that at some point an Armbian "trixie" distro with desktop will be released, until then use the "bookworm" release if you are allergic to "snaps".
EDM's post in Armbian_25.11.1_Odroidn2_noble_current_6.12.58_xfce_desktop, missing internet browsers and other problems was marked as the answer