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Maybe the fact that we have all these games running on Linux now, and as a result more gamers running Linux, developers will be more incentivized to consider native support for Linux too.

Regardless, "native" is not the end-goal here. Consider Wine/Proton as an implementation of Windows libraries on Linux. Even if all binaries are not ELF-binaries, it's still not emulation or anything like that. :)

Why should they be incentivized to do anything, Valve takes care of the work, they can keep targeting good old Windows/DirectX as always.

OS/2 lesson has not yet been learnt.

Regardless if the game is using Wine or not, when the exceedingly growing Linux customerbase start complaining about bugs while running the game on their Steam Decks, the developers will notice. It doesn't matter if the game was supposed to be running on Microsoft Windows ™ with Bill Gate's blessings. If this is how a significant number of customers want to run the game, the developers should listen.

If the devs then choose to improve "Wine compatibility" or rebuild for Linux doesn't matter, as long as it's a working product on Linux.

Valve will notice, devs couldn't care less.

I'll hold on to my optimism.

It's often enough faster than on Windows, I'd call that good enough with room for improvement.

And?