I have no experience with Linux, but I’d like to give it a try. I’m looking at the System76 Meerkat and Thelio with the Pop!_OS option.
I don’t see myself gaming on it because I have a Windows machine for just that. I’d mostly be using it for learning Linux and doing basic things like web surfing and word processing (Libreoffice perhaps).
Yes, I started off with Pop! As my first distro back when I started to use Linux. TBH you can't really go wrong with Pop! Or Mint as your first choice.
Second vote for Mint - used to use it for many years, and the Cinnamon version is both a great interface outright and should be an easy transition from Windows.
Mint was my previous distro of choice but I ended with Pop because it keeps updating the kernel, and some of my hardware works better or gained new functions (my Logitech webcam for example).