Thanks for the perspective. It’s always hard to balance “just enough to get a comfortable first experience and everything works” and “bloated system”.
In my opinion, Mint manages that well, and I think if I put the description “rather lean out of the box” to describe Debian might be worth an idea. Having a more minimalist system can also be a fresh breath of air, you’re right in that. Some people prefer to manually install the stuff they need, others want a full experience. Good input, thanks!