Mint has treated me just fine since I converted.
I’m not proficient with Linux whatsoever, but Mint has literally been the most newbie user-friendly OS I have tried to date. So Windows can suck it.
For gaming, Steam runs things great. And for other things like GOG, Battle.net, Lutris has server me well. Proton does a good job.
Depends on what is meant by “Influential”. Are we talking within the industry or among players?
Because, as much as I hate to say it, World of Warcraft pretty much revolutionized the industry. From the live-service, massive multiplayer format to every nasty type of monetization model we’ve seen in almost every big title since.