Linux Mint is superior because it has a software manager and a driver manager. Most users want a no fuss OS.

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The only superior Linux distro and DE is the one that works for you and meets your needs.
This is different for each user and, frankly, the joy of Linux that it has such a variety as to be able to meet almost everyone's needs.
For me , personally, thats Debian/Gnome with minimal tweaks but just because it works for my workflow does not make it superior.

Mint is definitely good because of those things, and its no-fuss approach, but almost all Linux distros include a software and driver app with equal functionality.
I think a more useful way to measure how much "fuss" a distro is to its users is the amount of work you have to do post-install to get things working in a way that suits the majority of users.
Do I need to tweak settings or enable features commonly found on other distros? Is there an appropriate amount of default software available for common tasks? Do I need to manually enable repositories for non-free software and codecs?
Mint passed these pretty well depending on who you are, so naturally it's a popular OS for newbies and Linux users who just want something that works.

Superior over what exactly? Most workstation/desktop distros have a graphical software manager and handle drivers in a similar manner.
- Very few have software and driver managers.
  
  Recently I've used OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, PopOS! and Ubuntu, as well as Mint, and all of these have comparable graphical software managers. Which ones are you thinking of that don't?

maybe reword the title, as this will inevitably lead to partisan turf wars in the vein of my-distro-can-beat-up-yalls-distro and such.
as to your thesis, yes, mint and ubuntu are important and needed as beginner-friendly it-just-works solutions that have things in place (like the mentioned driver manager) that are sorely needed for noobs. once they learn what's what they are free to wander farther, as there's essentially zero switching costs.
you'll find low sympathy from experienced users as they can't relate to people who are so much below their expertise level. case in point, a buncha people already mentioning package managers, ignoring the idea that a noob doesn't know what that is.

Which distro doesn't have a software manager? If I recall correctly even Gentoo had graphical software managers ~15 years ago.

YasT

I've never understood the fuss about Mint, but I thought it was more of a tinkerer's distro? I've been using Debian, which has its warts, but seems to want to minimize loose ends (not always successfully). Some more explanation of Mint's benefits could be useful.
- Mint is not really for tinkerers. It's a distro designed to work out of the box without the need to tweak anything, and it does that well. The downsides are that it's not always the most up to date, and it bundles a lot so it's not a slim distro.
- Imo, the great thing about mint is stability first. You can tinker with it, but it's generally about being able to plug it in, and get started using your device with as little puttering around as possible. It tends to be one of, if not the, most out of the box easy to install on any hardware.
  Yes, it lags a little behind since it's a derivative distro, and they tend to keep packages stable over recent. If you need more recent packages, it can suck since you'll have more work to do to get it set up. But the average user doesn't really need need bleeding edge stuff.
  Then you've got their flagship DE, cinnamon. Again, right from install, it's usable, visually easy, and pretty much bug free. But it still has enough depth of features to play with if you want.
  When I started exploring Linux as win10 started being more and more obviously something I wasn't going to like, I tried a bunch of distros on multiple machines. Mint ended up being the most reliable on all of them. By the time I was picking up enough background to be able to move to something else and make it work, mint was still doing what I needed, so I only play around with distros when I'm gifted old hardware and patch something together out of it. And I end up going to mint on those because there's really nothing better for my needs, and I like it.

Man, this doesn't deserve all these downvotes. OP's just expressing gratitude.

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