I was the same. I tried Ubuntu once and went back after a day or two because i didn't want to bother tinkering after work when i just want to relax. A few weeks ago I was finally so annoyed by Microsoft's bs that i tried bazzite which gets recommended a lot here and it is great. I didn't have to open the terminal even once so far, everything just works right out of the box.

So far I've tried Elden Ring (online as well with anti cheat), Age of Wonders 4, Talos Principle 2, Baldurs Gate 3 and a few others and they all just work and not in the Todd Howard way but actually. I also went through a bunch of the recent demo flood on steam and no issues.

I'm gonna miss Valorant but I mostly played that one once in a few months. And i can always just make a little 300GB windows partition that i only boot for invasive anti cheat games.

I just started dual booting to see what Linux could do nowadays. And yes, there's a few games I have trouble playing, but it's mostly games like Subnautica that gives me trouble. And in all honesty, that game barely works in Windows as it is.

I haven't had problems with anti-cheats at all. Like, Helldivers 2 runs as well on Linux as in Windows.

While anticheat is definitely a weak spot (though, it doesn't have to be...) - the Steam Deck and Proton demonstrate it's pretty mature for playing most games.

As the other commenter suggested, try bazzite. Setup as easy as configuring a new smartphone and ready to game right off the bat

I’ve never had an issue with settings stuff except for maybe a super old game like fallout 1, but I expect windows would have the same issue.

But you are right about anti-cheat stuff. Luckily I don’t care about online gaming.