Configuring My Site in SharePoint 2016 on prem, help!

Hey Americo! I think it all comes down to permission in this caso. First, if your users can see the site settings option, they probably have Edit permissions in the site, which isn't ideal. You should make sure common are inserted in the Site Members group. Usually this group has Collaboration permission. I just tested in my tenant and my user with this permission coouldn't see the site settings options. Using CSS or modifying the master page to hide content can be tricky, so I wouldn't recommend that.
Go to Site Settings > People and Groups > If the page is showing a specific group rather than the list of groups, hit the More button at the left pane. That will give you the list of groups in the site. From there you can edit permissions for each group and insert users in them. Also, you can go to Site Settings > Site Permissions and click the "Check Permissions" button at the top pane to see which permissions a specific user or group has, and what is granting its permissions.

Regards,.