Yes, Fossify came precisely as a continuation for the Simple apps. The https://github.com/FossifyOrg org and the website https://www.fossify.org/ are linked from the F-Droid metadata so they should be legit as well.
See also: https://f-droid.org/2024/01/04/twif.html
Mint is a glorious debloat of Ubuntu with several extras and are strategically wise in having LMDE ready and in production. They fill a very important role as an user-friendly not-DIY distro suitable for someone completely unfamiliar with Linux. I wouldn’t describe Fedora that way. It changes too fast for that use case and compared to Mint comes with not much preinstalled.