They absolutely didn't work. I didn't try removing the compatibility files afaik, but switching versions should basically have had the same result as that did trigger an first-time setup each time. The Ubisoft installer wasn't part of that install for as far as I could see, or failed for each proton version without any visible signs.

Understood, my bad for assuming! It sounds like you had some really bad luck, as I couldn't find users with the same issues on ProtonDB.

The problem here is mostly that the information offered on various locations differs and it is a question of trial and error to find out what works and what not, especially if you're still figuring out the gaming ecosystem.

I definitely agree that this is a big issue. ProtonDB is generally the best source, and besides that a lot of the best resources are unfortunately in difficult to search Discords. I would love to see a more organized resource for this kinda stuff. This issue extends beyond gaming on Linux, too. Looking up any Linux issues results in a ton of super outdated or just bad info.

It was Linux Mint, on an Nvidia Prime-based laptop.

Linux Mint is a great distro, but one that I personally recommend against for gaming. People recommending distros that aren't great for some use cases is also a problem with Linux gaming. Mint's stability means using outdated Nvidia drivers, something that I would absolutely try to avoid.

I already saw somebody else mentioning Bazzite, so my next attempt will be to try that distribution.

I do love Bazzite, it is easily the distro I recommend most to users trying Linux for gaming. The only warning I have is that if you use hardware that needs kernel drivers that aren't upstream, and they aren't packaged by Bazzite, you will probably run into trouble. I wanted to use a steering wheel that needed a custom driver and just had to give up on getting it working. The only solutions seemed to require a ton of knowledge about ublue and all the containerization technology they use. It's not my main distro, so I really didn't feel like dedicating the time to learning all that.

However, that's the only issue I've ever run into with Bazzite, and otherwise it is super user-friendly and Just Works™.