You should probably try Linux Mint, or if you have an NVIDIA card, Pop!_OS

The recommendations here aren't bad but I would highly recommend ZorinOS. It's familiar to Windows and does a lot to be beginner friendly.

I did the same and moved to kubuntu. You can play Xbox game on the cloud really good on Linux. And you have heroic games launcher for the main non steam launchers. I game and work in Linux and couldn't be happier honestly, ask me anything you want

So far my main struggle with any flavor of Linux has been battery drain and ram usage. I haven’t been able to get laptops to suspend properly, they only turn the screen off.

Scan through some YouTube videos of each of these recommended distros and see which one you like the look of best; They are all good recommendations.

I'd like to throw Zorin in the pot, I use it on all my devices (and servers) since it's just smooth and works without fuss or tinkering. There's a Gnome version and an XFCE version, both are very nice. XFCE is a little lighter in weight of course, which you may like or need.

If you're not a techy person/power user, I would recommend staying with Kubuntu/Xubuntu (flavors of Ubuntu, that seem familiar to Windows users), or a more loved variant Linux Mint. You'll have everything you need there, and your gaming will do just fine using Steam thanks to Proton. My first time (~2014) I went with Ubuntu, since it has an easy to use installer (like most distributions), with relatively sane default settings. Nowadays I would recommend Linux Mint or anything Debian based for the stability.

Check out peppermint OS. Runs on most hardware , lightweight and easy. Debian based , stable and got most things you might need. Easy transfer from Windows since a bit prepared for using web-based stuff