If you like extra config work you'll love Arch relative to Mint.

Linux is Linux. The differences largely come down to packaging and release cadence. You never really have upgrade difficulties with Arch due to the rolling release model as long as you are updating pretty regularly. On other distros, it’s not uncommon to deal with release upgrades that can be a little more involved. The other advantage to Arch is the repository and AUR. You can install just about anything with one command/click.

Personally, I think Arch is the easiest distro to use once it’s installed. I was a Debian user before Arch for mostly the same reason - it’s so easy to install software because the repository is huge. Being on Mint, you have access to a lot. Just imagine having access to even more but needing a little more knowledge to get started and that’s Arch.

I think my issue with Mint is the small team maintaining the cinnamon fork that clearly can't keep up with the desktop.

Otherwise mint is functionally Ubuntu. I preferred Debian for my stable stuff. I like arch currently because PKGBUILD was acomparatively easy package format to learn and modify. Rolling is nice but I've used Debian extensively as well.

Different strokes for different folks mostly.

Arch is a rolling release, meaning everytime something changes in a package or dependency, there's an update.

Mint is a stable release, and gets major updates every few months, with much more frequent security updates, but yeah, it's not an everyday thing like with Arch

While I don't like saying "this is better than that", since Arch is a rolling release, it's always up to date, and so you're not going to end up in a situation like "my built-in laptop sound card isn't getting picked up" (i mean, you might, but it's rare. After all, Arch can break sometimes times, just like everything, really) like you sometimes can with Mint and other stable distros. Also, Arch--well, vanilla Arch and something like Endeavour--comes with just the basics and everything else, you gotta add. I personally like this because I like knowing exactly what I'm installing and having only what I'm going to use...and also not deal with messing with PPA's. This isn't a point against non-Arch distros or anything, it's all just personal preference--but really, everything from "Should I do Arch with Cinnamon or something like Mint or Fedora's Cinnamon Spin?" is all up to personal preference

pacman.

Customization, lots of apps (via aur), no bloat

The AUR

Do you mean Arch the distro, or Arch the platform, like how Ubuntu's and Mint's platform is Debian?

minimalism

Arch and Gentoo have IMO the best documentation ever and you learn a lot when you try using either of those distributions as you have to do everything from scratch starting from a minimal system. Since you're saying you're new to Linux though, I'd say you should start with something more user-friendly like Mint or Ubuntu (or even Manjaro if you want a rolling release distro) and stay away from Arch and Gentoo in the beginning.

@jackpot For me personally, I've found that XFCE on Arch runs faster & uses less resources compared to XFCE running on mint, Debian, or Ubuntu. Debian will always be my No.1 fav Linux distro, but for now I'm on Arch, even if I'm not really using the aur for anything other than nvidia drivers. Arch probably won't be permanent, but for now I'm loving it, & switching back to Debian will eventually happen. Just not yet....

Just to chime in, I first tried arch because some youtuber I followed recommended it, but after 5 years I would say I've stayed with it for the AUR and the community. The AUR has almost every app I've ever needed, and whenever I have a problem there's always a solution on one forum or another, to the point where I can usually just copy and paste it into the terminal and it's solved!

I use Crystal Linux, which is Arch based.

I've tried Mint along with 10 other distros. What I liked about Arch is:

• Latest Kernel, always. This means new drivers, better support for your current devices and support for more devices. Security & performance patches.
• AUR. Massive repo of user submitted apps & libs most not found elsewhere.
• Arch WiKi. Everything you will need or want to do somebody else already did and documented it so everyone else can have a guide to do it. Best documentation site ever.
• Arch Repo. Always the latest Software. Officially maintained apps and libs land first on Arch, Debian & Ubuntu derivatives take ages to catch up in comparison.