...wasn't it supposed to be other way around?

https://lemmy.world/post/43793011

Linux audio issues were common during the transition to PulseAudio, but that was almost 20 years ago now.
And they continued until the transition to Pipewire.

Agreed, it was the next step from pulseaudio. To say it wasnt problematic is incorrect, as it had many problems and needed a lot of manual intervention.

Nowadays, pipewire appears alot more stable, even with the compatibility layers for when stuff uses pulseaudio.