LTSC is the route I took as well for awhile. But went back to retail because I wanted to play Game Pass and there were some weird things going on. But it was great for my cheap homemade NAS.
that is... until I switched both computers to Linux last year.
But completely agree - if you need/want to stay in Windows, LTSC was very clean.
I also didn't like the way Mint looked/felt, even though I'm aware of its popularity and good reputation.
I'm on Pop!_OS which is mostly a GNOME desktop, but they do add [remove] features and it's very smooth and clean. I guess this is one of the miracles of "linux" where we can all be using "linux" but with 1500 different varieties.