Many people don‘t seem to have any problems with Sierra (10.12). I‘m still on El Capitan (10.11.6), but didn‘t install the Intel Spectre/Meldown patch, which can cause performance issues.
As far as I remember, this Intel patch was directly integrated first in 10.13.2, so that might explain, why many people complained about High Sierra. On Yosemite, El Capitan and Sierra it was a separate patch.
It is a difficult decision ... if your Macbook is also used for daily work, especially web surfing, it‘s a bit risky to not install the patch.
PS: If you want to install Sierra, inform yourself about the introduced iCloud feature, that syncs seldom used files automatically into the cloud ... that should be switched off.
PPS: I was forced to stay on 10.11, because it was the last version where my old Tascam interface was supported. Now that I have a new interface, I will likely switch to Sierra or maybe wait a bit longer and go directly to Mojave ... I‘ll try the later with an external HDD. But from experience, a new OSX/macOS version usually needs three patches, until most bugs got sorted out. So it‘s a bit too early for Mojave