Has it really been that long? Apparently so. Valve originally announced their rebranding of Steam Play with Proton back on August 21st, 2018. Seems like a good time for a quick reflection being halfway to a decade old now with the tech that gave rise to the Steam Deck.
Most people want to play aaa games by your own argument gaming on Linux before proton wasn’t easy you just happen to really like indie games but most people aren’t like you