Gaming in Linux on a windows VM isn’t viable for most systems. Most games run really well through proton with little to no effort. Some even run better on Linux than on windows. You just can’t play a lot of the most popular competitive online games because it flags their anti cheat.

Most of the time, yeah. Check ProtonDB for the particulars regarding any particular game. Games with intrusive DRM or anticheat probably won't work though.

Yes, some on steam, others on wine/bottles/lutrix/etc

Running software designed and compiled only for XYZ system is always going to incur overhead when translating or emulating to ABC system.

Game authors and publishers who only build for Windows are giving users a big middle finger and essentially saying "You must suffer through Windows in order to enjoy our product hassle-free lol".

What worked for me (which may or may not work for others) was to wean myself away, at first with only playing games that were built natively for linux.

Then moving the line in the sand to only DRM-free native linux builds.

Then advancing to only open source games.

These days, I just don't even play games and I find that it really frees up what kinds of things I want to do on my computers, such as daily driving exotic CPU architectures (and also I have so much more free time for actual meaningful pursuits like learning new skills).

Many distros nowadays have decent support forngaming accessories and a mix of Lutris and Steam/Proton have given me a near seemless experience on Linux. Smooth enough for my partner to hop ship to Bazzite for their ROG Ally.

Sometimes there are small quirks, like controllers on Bazzite just work™ but on Vanilla OS 2 my xbox controller wouldn't be recognized by Steam or games wirelessly (wired worked) but my DS5 controller worked flawlessly (including the trackpad that I never got to work on Windows).

Most of the Steam library will work well and ProtonDB is a great resource for compatibility. Furthermore there are Decky plugins for setups like Bazzite and Chimera that embed the ProtonDB rating into the Steam game page.