I agree that the experience on Linux is quite variable; I set up my Linux installation to play games once 3 years ago (it didn’t take me hours) and my Steam games are plug and play. I don’t play all the games from those lists but RDR2 plays perfectly fine for me. Occasionally, there would be updates that would introduce a regression for some games (DX12 is still a bit hit or miss on some titles) and it would take a few searches to find a workaround, but I can accept that, since I can stay on an OS I trust and would rather use. Rarely, there would be a serious bug or issue that I find difficult to triage because I can’t tell whose fault it is between Proton/Wine, Steam, Nvidia etc. But this happened once in the past few years.
I think what would help is Steam making their own Wiki (with contributors) on gaming on Linux for its own platform for players who just want a streamlined experience.
But communities like /c/linux_gaming (or its orange site equivalence) are ways to get support and help one another. You could even see it as the “friends you make along the way”.
I would say gaming on Linux has come a long way since, but depending on how much time and energy one has for the occasional tinkering, one might need to exercise more patience. Sounds like Windows gives you what you need, and that’s okay.