I don’t have an Optane laptop, so I can’t offer much advice there. However, there appears to be a software workaround to it here:
This one displays the method to install Fedora, which should work for any other distro as well. In my personal opinion, it’s not going to be long before Linux catches up and addresses the issue.
Hypothetically, you can install the Cinnamon and the MATE desktop environment in a single distro run. I’m saying hypothetically because there is a conflict. That conflict is the “Cinnamon Settings” and the “MATE Settings” app. Both desktop environments are forks of Gnome 2. However, this doesn’t tend to be the case if your secondary desktop environment is in the Gnome 3 (or now 4) category. Also, have you tried KDE at all? It tends to play well alongside other environments.