Hard to understate how much Proton has changed the trajectory of Linux. I remember when the Wine folks were mad at DXVK because it didn’t do it “the Wine way”- the results speak for themselves in this case. I’m not sure if Valve did it all just to make a buck and secure their game market position against Microsoft, but I’d like to think they had selfless intentions too. To this day I buy all my games from Steam just to show some support for their Linux efforts - I really hope Valve never turns into something terrible.
(I’d also like to throw some shade towards the ‘elitist’ Linux users who kept saying “video games are for children we don’t need them on Linux” for years before DXVK got rolling. That sort of attitude is a good way to make sure Linux never catches on.)