My first foray was with Ubuntu and Mint, and I found the whole experience far too on-rails for me. A few years later, I made the permanent move from Windows to Arch, largely because of how good their documentation on GPU passthrough via OVMF/VFIO was. It was also an excellent opportunity to be forced to learn how my computer works.

Ironically, I almost never open virtual machines for gaming, I have come across very very little that cannot be handled by wine, ge-wine, or proton.