just for anyone curious, this does work, but it does seem to also remove some of the accuracy of the touch keyboard. Funny enough, the resizing jittery keyboard with suggestions is substantially more accurate and easier to type on than the stationary one. Grass is always greener I suppose. I reinstalled for now in hopes in the future I can have all of the features, without the keyboard resizing on its own.
I would go for mint.
I want to suggest something immutable, but even when I use it, I have just had some issues occasionally or when trying to get the one off software here and there.
Of all the people in my family, even elderly, mint has been the easiest transition and I have very rarely needed to perform any additional maintenance outside of doing updates for them here and there.