I'm coming from a non programmer perspective who has been on linux just short of a year. I work in finance but use CachyOS on my personal computer and laptop. I started with PopOs because I had heard that it was "out of the box for nvidia gaming" but soon after learned that most gaming distros are just advertised as such because of pre installed ease of use programs. Proton, wine, etc will run on most forks of linux and the distro you choose matters less and less the more familiar you get with using linux. I recommend CachyOS as a first distro because the installer allows you to choose your desktop environment / window manager. Allows for more options for a beginner so you don't feel limited to what is packaged in other "beginner friendly" distros.
Note that anticheat is still the biggest pain point for linux compatibility layers so I just go on ProtonDB, check to see if the anticheat allows for linux, and if not I have a dual boot of debloated/removed telemetry windows that can run those games. Within my time using it, only rainbow 6 has required me to launch the windows instance. Aside from that all my singleplayer and multiplayer games run, albeit some with a 5% performance decrease (but that's more of an Nvidia issue than an inherent linux issue).
My advice is to just try it. Doesn't take much time or effort to back up your necessary files and just switch even if temporarily just to see if it's for you :)
Such a weird line being drawn for "gambling" in a video game. Is the game based on a casino table game? Yea, the same way Rocket League resembles soccer. Speaking of which, I don't remember YouTube "protecting the kids" back when Rocket League had YouTubers dedicated to opening loot boxes for content. I'm talking literal online casinos where the pot was replaced with Rocket League cosmetics. I also don't see demonetization of pack opening channels for literally any other game. In fact, I've seen them on the front page of YouTube Kids. I'm not really defending whether or not Balatro "can influence a child to research poker" because realistically it can, kids are impressional and have unrestricted access to the internet. But gateways like case openings and cosmetic trading are equal gateways. Really feels like YouTube wants a really easy win in the parent blogs. "We don't allow your kids to watch poker" is a free headline for them to get the FTC (and international org. equivalents) off their back