I am kind of in the same boat as you, except I haven’t yet tried Linux. I’ve just been reading up information about it and I also mostly use my PC for gaming and some work, but work is mostly in a browser anyway. I hecking despise Microsoft now for Windows 11 and just had to battle their forced updates that nearly bricked my computer and I’ve finally had enough. May I ask, which version of Linux did you find worked “out of the box” for you?
That last sentence of yours is a lie and I think somewhere deep down you know that, too.
Seek help anyway you can. There is always a way.