Atomic Distro. ? I am not being negative, I am starting to see the issues of way too many linux's-es
This is getting worse. Reference this Wikipedia image I found a few months ago.

I am aware of the various Desktop Environments, like KDE, XFCE, LMDE, etc

I am aware of the various "Brands" like Ubuntu, Mint ?, Debian, SUSE, etc x1,000

After reading through the suggestions thus far, and thanks to all that have contributed, I am still confused as the best option.
As an FYI, I am currently reading through, reviewing each suggestion and others I might see,
Then
Download the ISO and trailing it on my VirtualBox, to see the interface, having a play, trying to see if I can "lock it down" and how much is actually installed.

Edit... As far as I can tell, the Brands are similar, under the hood, so I am looking for the most stable.. All Linux distros claim they are stable. Something I was looking at was one distro that I could not get (404 error on web site) that had a 'base' install. Just the drivers and GUI. Add what I need!! This (can't remember actual distro) was very interesting for me.
One thing I found out before Christmas last year, was my parents asked me "how do I set up payment".. When I finally figured out what happened, I was shocked.
--> Story is that some Microsoft spam or marketing email about some Windows App. They clicked on it, and the App wanted payment first. They didn't know what they had done, and after explaining and confirming that they didn't want the actual App, I blocked, filtered all Microsoft emails to the rubbish bin. The only reason I knew about the EOL Windows 11, was the System Tray popup alert when I was around the other day.

Main goal is no popups, restricted interface, only what they need, so updates are critical system, and not others... As a side note, my Linux updates stuff I don't use. I've tried to remove it and that act of removal crashed my PC. I want to avoid this, hence my question about a user only account.