So far I have set up LMDE exactly the same as Mint Main and everything works great.
Yes there's a few things like Nvidia drivers and desktop effects that aren't quite as newbie friendly but overall LMDE is a big success IMO.
The only thing I'm missing now is usb-creator but that's no deal breaker.
Thank you Clem, ikey and everyone else involved in making LMDE a top notch distro like we've come to expect from Mint.