I started with Ubuntu 04.10, tried a bunch of distros until switched to Arch in 07, then to Funtoo in 12, then back to Arch in 15 because ain't nobody got time to compile everything.
It's a fork of wine, don't know if gets a good enough performance compared with a native Linux game.
Native is always better. But Proton lowers the barrier of entry to linux by allowing a huge back catalog to be played out of the box without having to fiddle with wine prefix (much).
What are your thoughts on the new SteamPlay? The more I think about it the better it seems, finally breaks the chicken and egg problem we've been having with games.