Mint is actually really good about not having weird dependency chains, and even if it did uninstalling apps would warn you about it. That is a very strange thing for people to have said. It is perfectly normal and good to have some things you don’t want or prefer an alternative to and uninstall them. Default Mint is a great sane starting point for a complete OS, and I think their updater is the best in the entire Linux world, but it’s still Linux. You can still customize it to your heart’s content. Anyone who says otherwise is just being a creep.
There are much less expensive ways of suing someone than just flying there and staying until the lawsuit is done. They’re still not cheap, but that’s a pretty absurd way of doing it.
Forced arbitration is also complete bullshit. The fact that corporations are starting to realize it’s almost as bad for them as it is for us doesn’t make it any less bullshit.