I haven't been to the town where I was born for any length of time in decades. I haven't spoken to any of the people I went to school with since I left school. So, no.
What the world needs right now is Steam boxes. Just build a $500 PC, slap Steam OS on it and you're done. The ecosystem is already there. I really don't understand why nobody has done this.
Yes. Install Linux Mint and be done. Just works. A lot of "problems" people have are because they enjoy tinkering and that will sometimes break stuff. Leave it alone and it'll be very stable.
I think it would be cool to be able to configure that as a user. You could experiment with different settings and use the one that works best for you. It'll be difficult to find a one size fits all solution.
And which of those two views is based on reality?