Well, i mean, if mint works for you, its perfect! My suggestions come from my personal experience, demands and regrets, so be ware that they might not suit you, though i believe that one should try everything.

Welcome aboard! I did same like a year before, and it’s been a blast!

If you were me from the past, I would’ve definitely recommended you to try out tiling WMs (Guess AwesomeWM is a good start) ASAP! I can’t stress enough how good they’re, especially if you prefer using keyboard shorcuts over mouse navigation.

Also, if you’ll find linux mint problematic, I want to suggest you to try out EndeavourOS (i wish i would’ve done it sooner myself). It’s installation is as simple, but it’s based on arch, and arch has one of the most comprehensive wikis, which allows you to troubleshoot basically any problem. Also. newer software versions get there faster, and finally AURs, that will allow you to forget about manual software installation at all.