[LightDestory]

pop or manjaro

if you still want to be able to play windows games these 2 needs mimimal extra configs to run them
both are also graphic optimized.

i used pop os AND I ABSELUTELY love it.
i'm back on windows now because of my new pc having to many issues with linux

Manjaro is very great graphically but as for my personal experience it is really unstable. 

Regards your issue with Linux on the newest hardware, I agree. On my current laptop I am unable to install Linux because too many parts doesn't work properly. I know that there is a special kernel branch dedicated to newest hardware but I rarely see provided iso shipped with it.

So I am currently living with Windows 10 as main OS and a Linux distro as a VM.

My laptop is a gaming series, but the hardware is likely the same of a workstation, so I don't think the my specific hardware is the issue.

[humanpuff69]

For near windows desktop experience you can use linux with mate desktop environment like ubuntu mate or linux mint (cinnamon work too)

It have much lighter ui than gnome 3 or kde desktop environment it also have near windows user interface (linux mint already have windows like ui , ubuntu mate have option to make it windows like)