Real talk though, how long ago was that? Linux has been making improvements at a blistering pace. If it's been a while, I'd recommend giving it another try soon.
Fair enough. I appreciate you for trying it again every so often and not just holding a grudge because of a bad experience 5 or 10 years ago. I have faith it'll "get there" eventually. For some of us it has, but there is obviously a ways to go before it has the ability to grab everyone. :P
For game dev, try Pop OS. it has Nvidia support out of the box.
Game dev has always been an issue because either card support is minimal or manufacturer just didn t care about ux for linux despite community plea (,unity s font issue)
I have used manjaro before and liked it a lot. Currently I'm running Garuda, but I have never used vanilla Arch so I'm honestly not 100% sure what extra Garuda brings to the table outside of a pre-customized ui and some "helper" apps - install went butter smooth and updates have been a breeze and I think that is thanks to Garuda specificly.
Personally a big fan of KDE plasma. The DE in popos was my biggest detractor but that's just personal preference. It also probably helps that I'm on an all AMD system.