That’s what I recommend, and I’d expect Mint to eventually be #2 or #3 once it hits mainstream.
No snark intended, but what do you mean by “hits mainstream?” It’s been around for a long time, and it still hasn’t surpassed Ubuntu, as far as I am aware. I genuinely don’t understand what you mean.
I agree that it’s generally user friendly, but many distros like Elementary and Manjaro are trying to become more user friendly, too. Couple that with the gaming community likely being the first larger group of adopters, and they’ll be looking for gaming-oriented distros like Bazzite, Pop, Chimera, and Garuda.