Guess I must be an alien then. (That’s ‘pure’ sway – no toolbars, icons… nothing. I use my own dmenu-esque app to run binaries.)

Funny of you to say that. I’ve got a Orange pi 5 MAX (which I’m pretty sure it can fall into the “not a easy machine to install Linux” category) and the experience, for the most part, was straightforward. (You’ve mentioned an issue regarding mices --I’ve got a “Ragnok 2 gun mice” and it “just werked” on it. No tweaks or “mental gymnastics” required.). Hell, even enabling hardware acceleration was very straightforward as is – you just have to know where and what to look for.

I’m not trying to defend Pewdiepie – just saying that Linux can be “user friendly” just like Windows if you know what you are dong.

You will go back to your “usual” linux setup when you realize that most packages you set up with LFS are now broken and you’ll need to redo the whole process again.

t. arch linux minimal installation only master race

Absolutely yes. You’d be better buying a dedicated PC for Linux tho.

t. Got a Orange pi 5 MAX with Linux installed. It’s tricky to set up, but worths a lot in the end (low power usage while providing a decent performance – can be used as a “mini server” to host your own personal file server or anything else you’d like while providing a smooth experience for anything your job may require from it.)

“Oh, but it’s a technical detail!” does not make it a false argument.

…which these “customized kernels” can (also) be applied to any other distro.

All distros are the same – none packs a exclusive feature that makes gaming “better”. Other than having predefined changes/packages that are more suitable for gaming.