You might want to google a complete guide. “how to remove grub”, “restore windows bootmanager” or something like this. Things are a bit different depending on your setup (uefi, do you want do clean the efi partition, do you need help deleting the other partitions…)
but google it yourself. it isn’t difficult and my windows knowledge is a bit rusty.
Linux, Mint at least, feels incomplete, sort of like a tech demo
I can tell you, this feeling won’t go away. I have the same feeling with windows or macos. You just had one glimpse at something that looked strange to your eyes and you then chose to believe in your prejudices. This is not Mint’s fault. Like I use windows and ask myself how people work with that. Well, gaming and updating my old TomTom gps is kind of okay, that’s what i use windows for. But how do you for example rename 350 photos from your camera after you found out you forgot to set the date and now all filenames are off (or from 1970)? How do you develop stuff? Do you really download gigabytes of some colourful IDE from the internet just to execute a simple ‘make’ command? How do you set up a webserver for your aunt’s etsy shop and install php and a database?
You’re alright not wanting to try linux or not liking it. But to give it a chance, you need to open up the package manager and see it has like 10.000s of packages of different software waiting for you. After first installation it’s kind of bare. You’re right. Thats intentional to make it slim, fast and customizable.
HDDs are slow
Put your system on SSD together with things you need available, and your other data that won’t fit gets stored on the HDD. That way your computer is fast and the data that isn’t accessed that often (or gets cached anyways) is stored on the cheap additional storage.
concept of having to compile something // simply download an installer
I’m sorry. You’re applying windows concepts to something where they do not apply, and this is making you fail. People from the linux community dedicate their time to make most of the software available in the package manager. Tailor it to work well with the rest of Mint etc… 99% of everyday software is available like this. This is your installer! If you chose to circumvent this, download random stuff from the internet and try to compile it yourself… You’re allowed to do it, but you’re on your own. It’s not an iPhone where there’s no alternative to the store. But… You actively chose to do something difficult, that beginners aren’t supposed to do and it’s not how it’s supposed to work. I use linux exclusively every day and also develop stuff with it. I rarely compile or download something myself.
future once Windows has devolved to the point of being garbage
There won’t be such a point in time. They feed you the changes in very small steps that are barely noticable. It’s like with that mean story with the frog and the boiling water.