What did you expect? You should not assume that Linux works like Windows or whatever OS you previously were using. They work very differently.
It also depends on which DE you are using. Since you're using Mint with Mate, which is not really something that provides customization GUIs out of the box and as popular as something like GNOME or KDE Plasma. I suggest you try KDE Plasma as it is known to be very customizable and one of the more used DEs. I don't know about cursor trails, but you can change your cursor by installing cursor skins from the page in the settings or make your own skins to get the color you want. It's really simple.
You'll also need to get over your fear of the terminal if you're going to use Linux. I'm not telling you to use terminal for everything, but some types of customization requires you to use the terminal and it is a good thing to know anyway.
You can install some Linux distro and then install a docker management web UI like coolify. Requires little terminal knowledge. Though you should learn the terminal.
Try the Fedora Server distro, afaik it should come with Cockpit installed: https://fedoraproject.org/server/