Need a Thinkpad for general purposes

Hi! I don't have any techical knowledge about computers. I need a laptop good enough for browsing, research, college-related stuff (nothing to do with IT or similar), watching TV shows, very light gaming (Minecraft and such, free visual novels on Steam, in the worst case stuff I could live without) and photo editing, maybe some programming, all as a hobby and not really a priority. However, longevity (6+ years), portability and battery life *are*. My budget is €500, I'm looking to buy refubrished.

I'll be putting a Linux distro on it and as I understand it doesn't require as much RAM as Windows? Still looking for 16gb, just in case. While doing research, I mostly saw T14 and T14s generations 2 and 5 being recommended, as well as the P series but apparently those are heavy duty which I don't need. Right now I'm mostly looking at T14. They also apparently have another RAM slot, unlike T14s whose RAM is soldered on. Unsure if I'll ever need to upgrade or if it's irrelevant to my needs. Saw stuff about an AMD processor being better (not overheating as much as Intel, better performance for graphics) but again, I'm unsure.

For comparison, right now I have an HP 255 G8 Notebook, 8gb/256gb. On Windows 10 it was really slow but I recently put Zorin OS on it and so far it's been a great improvement. It's a bit too heavy and large in general (3,84lb and 15,5inch, T14s is way lighter but really anything would be).

If there's anything I need to clarify I'll do so here. Thanks!