I'm glad Mint just worked for you. I installed it on my wife's laptop my mother-in-law's laptop (former didn't want Win11 spyware, and latter didn't want spyware + her ancient laptop can't support it) and they're both running excellently. I use CachyOS on my desktop and laptop, and those run incredibly smooth. Mint really does just work.

Sorry your experience was very rocky, but I'm glad you got there! 😅