Fair points. I've only ever taken Mint for a quick spin and that was a decade ago. I just see it constantly recommended as one of the most user-friendly distros, thus the maybe recommendation.
Personally, I'm all in on Fedora Atomic for my hosts and (mostly) Arch in my containers.
I would maybe add Linux Mint to that list, but otherwise you're spot on. Fedora and Ubuntu are the easiest and most robust systems for novice computer users.
Obviously, lightweight is open to some interpretation but Silverblue can be made very lightweight by simply uninstalling the default flatpaks. You'll be left with a very basic GNOME shell and greeter, without any of the common GNOME extras. From there you could easily install your own window manager, greeter, and whatever apps you need.
For all its faults (and there are many), Huawei continually features some of best phone cameras available worldwide.
I don't even use Kmail, but kudos for sharing a quick fix to something that would drive me bonkers!
If all else fails, you can always spin up a Windows VM. I generally keep one around for tasks like this (or complex Excel workbooks).
If you've no prior experience with Linux, I'd say just try using it. For the average computer user, the overall experience will be very similar to Windows or Mac.
Go easy on yourself, and don't try to do/learn everything all at once. Just use the system like you would any other. Once you're comfortable with the overall experience, you can then tackle more complex stuff if/when you feel the need.
Edit: Just wanted to add that Fedora, Linux Mint, and Ubuntu are all solid choices for beginners.
From a societal point of view, that's a pretty sad read. I recently created a mastodon account--I'm not entirely sure why but I always wanted to give it a try--and this is exactly the kind of thing that has kept me from posting anything yet. It's kind of just shouting into a void and not knowing what kind of response will come back (if any, given the platform).
At least with platforms like Lemmy, there is a clearly defined topic of discussion, and generally with like-minded contributors.