Yes definitely. I think the argument about outdated software is overstated, particularly as flatpak and snap become more and more common.
I personally think that Ubuntu is still a really solid choice for a distro, especially a first distro.
If so, which distro offers the best security? Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Pop_OS! are the distros I’ve considered so far, but I’m open to any suggestion.
In the context of security, of the 4 distros you mentioned Mint would be my 4th choice (not that its horrible, but they haven’t historically prioritized security to the extent their upstreams (Ubuntu and Debian) do). Its not a bad distro in other regards (it was my first or second distro, and I really enjoyed it, and a great beginner distro).
I’d say Pop!_OS might be a strong option in another couple years. I have a generally positive impression of the work they are doing and the attitude and seriousness of the developers, but they are really focused a year or two in the future right now.
Debian wouldn’t be my first recommendation for a desktop distro, though its certainly an option, and I’ve used it in the past (still use it, but in a server context). It can be a great choice for a somewhat more experienced user, but its not the ideal choice for a first time linux user in my opinion. There is a security focused derivative called Kicksecure, I haven’t personally used, but I think its likely not he best choice for a beginner.
That leaves Ubuntu, its a solid general purpose distro, and security and reliability are top priorities in my experience (OpenSUSE and Fedora/RHEL, are also in this category in my eyes). If you want a Debian based distro that is both easy to use, and has pretty good security out of the box, Ubuntu 24.04 would be my recommendation.
TL:DR Ubuntu 24.04 is the Debian based distro I’d recommend to you