I bought a refurbished steam deck finally and am thinking about what my ahem acquisition workflow will be. This is what I'm thinking from my past experience daily driving Linux (arch btw):

For Linux native games, easy - just torrent it and/or install it and play.

For Windows:

• For game file dumps, add the .exe in Steam as a non-steam game and run it with proton.
• For setup installations (repacks etc.), run the setup.exe with wine, install to a location, then do the same as above.

For any issues with the above, try installation scripts from Lutris and review protonDB and wineHQ to troubleshoot.

Is there an easier way I'm missing?

Edit: Will also check Bottles. Apparently you can use Heroic launcher to install setup.exes? If true I'll try that also.