Don't know that it really works that way to import/export settings, as things are fairly fluid between releases in many things over time. Dot directories such as .config and .anything_else tend to change with the wind between releases in my experience. Certainly my experience with ubuntu has been between major releases, I end up having to cleanse various .dot directories just to make everything work again. I've had to just rename my /home/$usr to $usr.old to just get things functioning again with everything so jacked between releases in ubuntu, and selectively importing back .config dir's underneath. Always a good time.
This is probably not untrue for any .deb distro, though my experience with a debian install was fairly short-lived, as it didn't behave at all on my laptop at the time, a basic dell latitude. Ubuntu worked well enough, minus upgrades that were again always problematic. Always plan to start upgrade on Friday, and presume your weekend is spent trying to make it work again, imho.
I've not had that so much since Arch really (when I can make it work). Some occasional annoyances with individual apps not upgrading (usually via yaourt vs. official repos), but the rolling approach has been WAY better for me so far. I don't get wholesale carnage typically between upgrades, usually it won't upgrade at all if something needs fixed like a dependency. Not half-way through like ubuntu.
Worst issues are probably graphically DE-independent for me, as most compositors always look at my desktop resolution like wtf per DE. Why I'm back to Mate currently, but works pretty well for 3x 4k displays and not crap out every 3 days to crash/reboot (ahem, kde).
-mb