Is major changes creating Child theme possible?

As far as I can understand it, a child theme is used to make minor changes to a parent theme, still enjoying most of the functions in the parent theme.
It then make sense that you update the parent theme when possible.
But how far can I change a Child theme?
I have not found a theme that I like, so I thought I should create a Child theme. But it would mean to remove almost everything within the parent theme.
Is that possible, and would it still make sense to update the parent theme when such updates are available? I mean – would it still protect the Child theme?
Is there a better solution (than a Child theme) if I want to make major alterations to a theme?)
(I don’t know how to write code by the way – so no such solutions would help)
Best regards
Carl