Gaming has changed so much within the last 2 or 3 years. At this point, I expect almost every game to work. There are still some issues, for sure. But, particularly with Proton on Steam, I'm at the point where I just buy a game without even looking up compatibility beforehand.
Yeah, from my point above about most games being compatible, the multiplayer is a big caveat. Like you, I don't really do multiplayer, so those types of issues are something I haven't experienced.
As for the 'joy of computing' part, I agree with that. There is something fun about coming across problems and solving them. I do wish that Linux was where it is now, back when I was in high school and had more free time. Because there are occasional issues, and it cam be frustrating when you have to solve them and your time is limited.
For example, I just bought a 165Hz monitor. Apparently, Chromium-based browsers don't play nice with high refresh rates when using multiple monitors with different refresh rates. There may be a solution, but it's going to take a bit of time to dig into it.
As for the gaming side, sometimes playing games on Linux (more when using Lutris than Steam), there is a bit of nostalgia for that late 90s, early 2000s vibe where you buy a new game and it doesn't quite run the way you expect it to, so you need to dig in to tweak a few things to get things working right before you can really enjoy the game. It was all a part of the process back then.