The big issue is not the DAW. Reaper will work fine (as well others, I'm sure). The issue is plugins, particularly wrt extended functionality with NI stuff (Maschine, etc.), and a variety of other ones, from Plugin Alliance, etc.

Yes, you could probably get a lot of this stuff to work (though to what extent, I don't know), but it will not be supported. If things start having issues, or if a new version comes out, there are no guarantees. I had a wierd glitch with a certain PA plugin but since I was using Reaper, they wouldn't support it - this was on windows.

Also, although you could likely get your interface to run, it'll not be supported.

In the end, if the fun for you is the challenge of making it work (even with duct tape and bailing wire) then go for it. It would honestly be fun.

However, if the goal is to make music, you run the risk of spending valuable time grinding away on compatibility issues - time that could be spent doing the music thing.

There's a reason why people gravitate towards MacOS for music - it just works, even more so than with Windows. That said, I just can't stand Apple computers (it's the walled garden that gets to me - YMMV - it's a personal choice) and settle for Windows on a home built PC with a healthy dose of WSL.

The other big thing holding me back is Adobe - lightroom, mobile, cloud, are all very much part of what I need. No joy there in *ix-land.

FWIW, I exclusively ran linux (and FreeBSD) for several years. Switched back to windows for the sake of compatibility with my workplace.

Let us know what if you end up trying it out - I am tempted to test it out too, but I am unlikely to switch.