Com base na resposta anterior, resolvi meu problema com a agregação do Mongo:
@Override
public List<Object> getDistinctValues(String collection, String fieldName, Sort.Direction sort) {
Aggregation agg = Aggregation.newAggregation(
Aggregation.group(fieldName),
Aggregation.sort(sort, "_id")
);
return mongoTemplate.aggregate(agg, collection, Document.class)
.getMappedResults()
.stream()
.map(item -> item.get("_id"))
.collect(Collectors.toList());
}
Espero que seja útil para alguém.