Linux mint is in my opinion the best distro for a new user, but you may personally not be fond of the UI.

I don’t know how to write a guide for you, but if you have more specific questions feel free to ask them, best of luck!

You pay and you’re still the product, they continue with all the tracking they do.

I would love it on Piped, they already have sponsorblock

Should I try it instead of Piped? If so, why?

No ads, no tracking, just donations. The model proved itself when twitter went to shit and a big influx of users came to mastodon, it all worked out.

The fact that it is open source means it’s worth playing