Don't use Mint or Ubuntu, use Bazzite. It actually is "just works" with the added benefit of "you can't break it". It's perfect for both beginners and experienced users who are looking to do work rather than tinker with their OS.
And if you have a graphics card (which you probably do since you mentioned gaming), Bazzite comes with Nvidia or AMD drivers preinstalled, so you don't have to do anything extra to get it to work.
But if you really want to follow the YT influencer Linux memes, at least go with Ubuntu instead of Mint. Mint is just Ubuntu with a different default desktop, but worse in every other way less reliable (edit: toned down the exaggeration)
Literacy and programming are not equivalent. Nobody needs to learn how to code unless it's required for work. Even if AI made people able to read/write code, it would not be much of a net positive to society as there's no indication that the demand for programmers will increase as well. If anything, AI agents/chatbots would be able to replace some categories of software (like search engines), and would thus decrease the amount of software that needs to be written overall.
I bet if you went back a few decades to the pre-internet era and showed someone wikipedia, they'd come to similar lofty conclusions about how everyone will be able to become an expert in anything. Not to discount Wikipedia's value today, but we aren't living in a post-ignorance society where everyone knows everything.
If you're going to join the AI circlejerk, at least make sure you don't have erectile dysfunction.