Xanmod has a bunch of little tweaks, mostly I'd say it helps with frame pacing more than anything else. It's only maybe 1-2fps difference most of the time, but it's very close to the upstream mainline kernel in terms of release timing, whereas Mint keeps to LTS kernels.
Likewise, the kisak-mesa PPA just keeps you more up to date with the upstream package version.
IMO the biggest differences are responsiveness, frame pacing, and getting to have access to the latest fixes/features ASAP while still getting to use the very stable package versions for the rest of the system.
Ah, and before I forget: yes you can modify the controller layout for non-steam games, as long as you launch them via Steam's UI. Otherwise you'll have to modify the desktop layout and launch it from desktop mode.
Regarding Steam Deck compatibility, it's generally best to look the game up on ProtonDB, since this includes both official status and crowd-sourced reviews.
For my gaming rig I use Mint Cinnamon with the Xanmod kernel and kisak-mesa PPA for bleeding edge performance but otherwise a very low-maintenance, convenient system.
For my personal laptop (ThinkPad T480s) I use Arch with KDE. For my various mini PCs used as servers, I use primarily Debian derivatives, except for my Mac Mini which runs Asahi Arch so I could optimize the use of its 8G of RAM.
Nah, I mean I can see why someone might feel that way, but it's missing a good chunk of plot resolution after the big third act twist, going into the big climax. Kinda just floats by on vibes from there on.
I feel that this is really 5e and 4e specific. 3.5 is kinda borderline and in my experience 2e and older definitely do feature things that are effectively "if you go in there you die, lmao" types of obstacles and trend more towards a sort of survival-horror tone, where surviving is in itself an accomplishment.
One thing worth looking into is if your thermal paste needs replacing.
I see you've got an 8145U, that's old enough that it might need re-pasting. Laptops generally have terrible thermals to start with, so if the paste goes bad you'll often see them start to thermally throttle on fairly light workloads (like Deltarune).
Another thing worth considering would be to turn on thermald to better control your temps.
See, I think this is the inevitable and indeed, intended outcome of the current administration. Corporate elites find capturing and corrupting state and local governments to be far cheaper, so their goal is to break up the US federal system into smaller parts and then go around buying entire towns/cities/states until eventually we have an official aristocratic dictatorship.
The biggest issue with the scenario even as you describe it is the extremely high likelihood of war between various states over things like aid, trade disputes, and sheer resource wars as e.g. Colorado runs out of water and Oklahoma continues to have no money and becomes desperate at the loss of federal funds.
Free-to-play refers to a specific type of game distribution model where the game itself is free, but it includes microtransactions, an optional subscription, or both.
Free Software is software that is given freely to the world in its entirety, source code included. It's different because of the complete lack of profit motive, in most cases.
Xanmod has a bunch of little tweaks, mostly I'd say it helps with frame pacing more than anything else. It's only maybe 1-2fps difference most of the time, but it's very close to the upstream mainline kernel in terms of release timing, whereas Mint keeps to LTS kernels.
Likewise, the kisak-mesa PPA just keeps you more up to date with the upstream package version.
IMO the biggest differences are responsiveness, frame pacing, and getting to have access to the latest fixes/features ASAP while still getting to use the very stable package versions for the rest of the system.