I think your emphasis on appearance is pretty shallow. I care more about functionality. I disagree that Mint is just Ubuntu+. I have Ubuntu installed and found it a huge pain to get all of the stuff installed to make it really usable. Many of the apps are really scripts that run the real programs and if you don't know what to install then things just don't work. I have been using PCLOS myself, but plan on installing Mint when I get time. It sounds great to me.