I'll respond here as a Ubuntu user, and by Ubuntu I do include the flavors which are still Ubuntu systems to me.
Of course Ubuntu MATE will be like a Ubuntu system, after all it's a Ubuntu product, where the Ubuntu-MATE team have created their own seed that causes some parts of it to differ, but it's still a Ubuntu system underneath.
Snap actually solves some problems, and is in my opinion useful. I'm very aware some Ubuntu flavors do include a minimal install option where snapd infrastructure is not installed; but its not disabled in any way even on those (they wouldn't be a Ubuntu system if that was done). Besides removing it I don't see as difficult, and just potentially creates problems down the road (so remember what you did for when you need to reverse your changes), but if users want to do it, I've seen many howtos appear on Planet Ubuntu written by Ubuntu developers or members on how you can disable it (I'm on the Ubuntu News team, and as we use the Fridge as a source for articles; I've seen loads of them)
For me anyway; as I'm aware I can rather easily remove anything I don't like, just as easily as I can install something that wasn't included (eg. flatpaks if I want them) I see installed by default or not-installed as pretty equal.
I'd rather the developers create what they believe an ideal system is, as in the end I'll almost always adjust it to what I'll use anyway.
Linux Mint have two products, their main product is based on Ubuntu, thus of course it'll be similar too, if you're also thinking of Linux Mint Debian Edition then as Debian is part of the same family of course it'll be very similar.
FYI: I'm using Ubuntu oracular on this box, but my secondary PC runs Debian trixie and I sure see those systems as pretty similar as they are. Debian & Ubuntu will always be close together since a lot of Ubuntu changes are merged upstream into Debian so both systems benefit from the work; this is intentional and helps keep the delta (difference) between Debian/Ubuntu as small as possible (an secondary aim of Ubuntu).
My 2c.