When OP says “layout” I think he means the old as windows 3.1 layout and workflow. It was good in the 90’s. Now it feels cumbersome and dated.
Don’t get me wrong. I know that’s the main selling point of Mint: Familiarity and stability. I settled on it for 19 years after I got tired of distro hoping. I’ve contributed financially to it every month for years.
However, it’s that cumbersome workflow which got me back into Gnome where I use only two extensions: transparent task bar and window autotile.
Gnome on a laptop flows naturally and out of the way.
Hahaha, we can always hope.