here's a thread with the exact problem i have that's been unsolved since october 2018. i love linux https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/how-to-totally-remove-gnome-mate-not-sure-screensaver/18077/5
so looks like the rest of the mate packages are already set to manually installed so removing ubuntu-mate-core and ubuntu-mate-desktop did not add anything to be autoremoved, thankfully