Cinnamon is a shit desktop enviorment, Linux mint is literally turbo normified babies first Linux, you can't search files with the start menu that well as it's index search is poor.
You can't drag and drop photos into applications launchers within the panel bar or drag and drop files from the start menu.
It gives me issues with audio equalizing software "pulse effects" for some weird reason other Mint 18.3 users reported it as well.
My PC is not compatible with Linux Mint19+ so I'm forced to use 18.3 release indefinitely. I also have a weird bug with Firefox version 61+ where right clicking and openly up a menu freezes, I'm forced into using firefox 60 ESR until it's fixed.
Xubuntu + Xfce is somewhat friendly too and meant for machines that are somewhere in the 1-2 gig of RAM.
It doesn't have fancy features like a thumbnail preview in the panel, but if you do a bit of configuration and tweaking to get the result
https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=11960
You can also get a dashboard apparently to show all Windows
http://www.webupd8.org/2014/07/xfdashboard-gnome-shell-like-dashboard-xfce-xubuntu.html
What I like the most is the Xfce as a desktop enviorment is amazing to configue it however you want literally, the only problem it comes with a bad file manager "Thumnar" not a good one like "Nemo" or "Dolphin" I probably have to figure out how to get one of those to work with the least errors. Changing file managers and Desktop enviorments that come as default are known to cause bugs.
I as a graphic artist will benefit from being able to put large icons on the task bar to drag and drop graphics into applications to edit them, It will probably also correct the issue I had with pulse effects and once again it is half the weight of the Cinnamon desktop enviorment.
"oh yeah I should have mentioned at the beginning installing Xfce on Linux Mint breaks Cinnamon."
Xfce(all modifications are panel modifications with no additional software)
Linux Mint's Cinnamon + Cairo Dock (top left) I use that for drag and drop and easy access.
It's sad knowing both distros have useful features and I'm forced to choose inconveniences either way.