I think these are good points - desktop environment will be the most immediately impactful choice; then once you’re settled a little into the Linux way you might start making choices about the package manager, eco-system and community philosophy.
But as you said, take your home directory with you and switching or exploring a little isn’t a pain at all.
You’ll have such a bad start choosing Mint when you don’t like Cinnamon, this approach prevents that. They do a lot of things right for beginners/low maintainers but only if you can live with their desktop.
I think these are good points - desktop environment will be the most immediately impactful choice; then once you’re settled a little into the Linux way you might start making choices about the package manager, eco-system and community philosophy.
But as you said, take your home directory with you and switching or exploring a little isn’t a pain at all.
You’ll have such a bad start choosing Mint when you don’t like Cinnamon, this approach prevents that. They do a lot of things right for beginners/low maintainers but only if you can live with their desktop.