Yes and no. AFAIK when coding assembler for these chips you use CISC-instructions but they get translated into RISC-instructions by a hardcoded mikroprocessing-unit (not sure about the real term). So the processor itself gets RISC-instructions.

The nice thing is that you can test out what you like about linux on mint cinnamon.

I installed it to get to know Linux “the soft way” and now love to use the terminal and got to know a buch of underlying concepts and whatnot. And I still use and love mint cinnamon.

A friend installed it and hasn’t configured anything, just uses its GUI and is very happy that way.

So I think the creators really hit the balance of ease of use and possibility to tinker, while ensuring great stability (“it just works”). Big props btw.