This is purely based on my experience but somehow I think that Pop OS works better on laptops. System76 is a laptop manufacturer so it makes sense they'd optimize for that, I suppose. You may want to give that a try
First of all, if you want to get into Linux, DO IT! It's truly awesome, I love it. Just get Mint, throw a Windows skin over it and nobody will notice, trust me. Honestly, it's incredibly rewarding.
When it comes to browsers, I now have the best setup I could think of: LibreWolf. It's a hardened version of Firefox. It doesn't use TOR and all websites are accesible. I use Startpage as a search engine. Granted, it can be a bit slow but it gets great results and there is a button that lets you open websites via a Startpage proxy. LibreWolf by default erases all browser data on exit so for logins I use KeePassXC password manager. It has an awesome addon which automatically fills in login fields, it can do TOTP and autofill that, too. It's pretty great.
He's the kind of guy that looks at a Fairphone and says "if you compare this to a Pixel, the Pixel is faster", talks about how important repairability and sustainability is, vows to mention it in future phone reviews and then proceeds to never mention it ever again but instead keeps on saying how great the new iPhone is.
I thoroughly enjoy well produced content by the likes of Veritasium, Captain Disillusion, Mark Rober, Lemmino, Potato Jet and more. I do see where you're coming from tho
There still are people doing it as a hobby and some even consider it a hobby despite the high production quality. Those channels are harder to find, though and that is kind of sad. I can't help but wonder what would've been if we hadn't commercialised the web.
I'm not really a fan of sponsor block. It's pretty much the most privacy respecting way of advertising and safe income for the creator. Seems like a win−win. I don't like watching ads but I'd rather watch a sponsor segment than a YouTube ad
I don't think anyone should use it, no. It is technically an option, though