Sure, nvidia drivers suck and I haven't had the best experience migrating to Wayland. However, it's important that people know this "limitation" in using SteamOS, especially since many other Linux distributions run both steam and Nvidia video cards just right.
SteamOS is a distribution that is great for a gaming device but I see people believing this is going to be a generalist Linux distribution and it's not. Having a clear idea of what SteamOS is, what is good for and what are the current limitations is very important. Linux is amazing, Valve is amazing but SteamOS is not replacing Windows. Which is fine, that's not the goal. I can recommend a bunch of distros that do replace windows if you want...
It borks when you try to install SteamOS. It does not work. Bazzite just added beta support for nvidia, so check that out if out really want something as close to SteamOS as possible.
Or just use a generalist distribution because gaming on Linux is in an amazing state right now. Install steam, boot games.
No, their Micro-compositor was written exclusively for AMD cards. The SteamOS setup just borks if you try to install it with nvidia. People coming from Windows won't really care who is to blame, they'll just be baffled it doesn't work.
It makes sense since steam deck only has AMD cards. SteamOS is targeted at gaming devices, not as a generalistic distribution.
I understand that people are hyped about a Linux distribution developed by a company they really care about. However, please be aware that SteamOS is focused at being an (almost) exclusive gaming OS with very limited hardware support. It doesn't support NVIDIA video cards, for instance.
Steam already runs perfectly fine in most generalist distributions and you'll have a wonderful time if you install them.
Optimized gaming distros often have stuff pre-installed, such as nvidia drivers, steam, heroic launcher... But you can pretty much install whatever you want and replicate that behavior.
Bazzite in particular provides a fantastic gaming experience but, in my personal opinion, a bad desktop experience. It's great for devices used almost exclusively to gaming, not so great if you have to work every day.
If you've already installed vanilla arch on your laptop then you're good to go, that's the hard part. EndeavourOS has a very user friendly installer but still uses Arch's official repos. I like to think of it as a quickstart installation, but still feels pretty much like arch. I wouldn't recommend Bazzite to a main computer, especially since I believe their gaming stack is optimized for AMD.
Gaming on arch/endeavour is pretty straight forward
Boot up a VM and install vanilla Arch Linux using the wiki instead of archinstall. Notice that Arch Linux isn't very pretty out of the box and take the time to set some "sane defaults". Imagine having a person who is new to Linux to jump through all those hoops when they're not even sure if Linux is for them. Imagine all the little things that could have gone wrong in this process and how a clueless person would react to them.
EndeavourOS is extremely easy to install. Next next next and it's done. It looks pretty out of the box and has sane defaults. The only reason I don't recommend Endeavour to newbies is because it lacks a software manager/store, which REALLY help newbies out. The very frequent updates are also not for everyone.
I love EndeavourOS but it's certainly not for everyone.
Unfortunately this is one of the cases where you're going to have to do some research.
Check ProtonDB to see how a game plays on Linux. I'm assuming the flight simulator would be problematic.
Usually the periferal drivers are built into the Linux kernel. Your keyboard and mice will just work, gamepads as well. Niche stuff like wheels and flight controllers will likely not work out of the box and you'll have to find a community based software to support it. Sucks.
If I were you I'd boot a virtual machine or a live USB drive and try it out. If you're not comfortable with the amount of compatibility just don't install it. Nothing lost
If you have the exact hardware supported by the SteamOS then you'll be fine. However, I don't even know of they support nvidia video cards yet, I believe most of their stack is optimized for AMD cards.
In that sense, installing a more generalist linux distribution will net you a better driver compatibility.
Linux gaming is at a fantastic state right now, you install steam and games work. 20 years ago I would have never believed it to be possible.
Trying from a USB or virtual machine is just a good idea in general. Use Ventoy to put several distros into a single USB stick and try them out. Try your hardware, check which UI you like the most.
If you are tech savvy enough to install Windows, you can easily install Linux as well. If you install any of the big distros you will have a good time.
I guess it depends on what you're going to do with it. I own a Steam deck and love it, but the screen is too small to work.
I would rather buy a small laptop, install arch and go wild. To each their own.