I would say both suggested distros are completely n00b friendly. Qubes, wilhile fantastic, does need some technical know and has a much steeper learning curve.
silent link is pointless, if you ever turn on that phone near your home. You must only activate it after you are a few kilometres away from home and turn it off when you are on the way back to home.
also, obviously never log in to accounts that are linked to your real identity, so that phone will be very limited in its usecases.
silent.link and bitrefill e-sims are still great for preserving privacy when traveling overseas. no longer do you have to give away identity information to use the local cell phone network.