Hi, @Watford 
I can only tell my personal option: I only use LTS ("Long Term Support") versions of Ubuntu MATE which as you know (but indeed, as you said, some "newbie" may not know) are released every two years, in even years (in the sense of years that are divisible by 2), in April.
So, in this laptop computer that I'm using right now, I began with Ubuntu MATE 20.04 LTS ("Focal Fossa"), then I upgraded it to Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS ("Jammy Jellyfish") and finally I upgraded it to Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS ("Noble Numbat").
The following is taken from "Ubuntu release cycle | Ubuntu" - https://ubuntu.com/about/release-cycle :
"(...)
Long term support and interim releases
Version numbers are YY.MM
Releases of Ubuntu get a development codename (‘Oracular Oriole’) and are versioned by the year and month of delivery - for example, Ubuntu 24.10 was released in October 2024.
LTS or ‘Long Term Support’ releases are published every two years in April. LTS releases are the ‘enterprise grade’ releases of Ubuntu and are used the most. An estimated 95% of all Ubuntu installations are LTS releases.
Ubuntu LTS releases receive 5 years of standard security maintenance for all packages in the ‘Main’ repository. With an Ubuntu Pro subscription, you get access to Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM) covering security fixes for packages in both the ‘Main’ and ‘Universe’ repositories for 10 years.
(...)
Every six months between LTS versions, Canonical publishes an interim release of Ubuntu, with 24.10 being the latest example. These are production-quality releases and are supported for 9 months, with sufficient time provided for users to update, but these releases do not receive the long-term commitment of LTS releases. (...)"
The difference between "regular" Ubuntu and Ubuntu flavors / flavours ("Ubuntu MATE" is an Ubuntu flavor) is that Ubuntu flavors LTS versions usually are considered to be EOL ("End-Of-Life") 3 years after its release date. See, for instance, the following post by @franksmcb , that he posted in April 2023, regarding the EOL of "Ubuntu MATE 20.04 LTS" ("Focal Fossa"):
The following post by @guiverc is also informative about the difference in the LTS support period between "regular" Ubuntu and Ubuntu flavors: