Under Arch it hasn't dropped to Stable yet, so unless you are running the testing branch, you won't have to worry. I think it took 5.27 two weeks or so to get to the stable branch after its "release," so you are probably looking at early to mid March. By then, we should also have Plasma 6.1 drop, ie, updates.
Late Stage Capitalism, Crony Capitalism, pretty much textbook.
You could go with System76, I think they have a high-end "graphics" laptop, which would be suitable for gaming. Open source company so you are guaranteed everything is compatible with Linux.
However, if money is an issue or you find something else you like, for example the Dell XPS laptops ( in the past have been very compatible with linux,) here is a tool to check the model and/or the parts (important) such as wifi, etc., to see if they are compatible for a lot of laptops.
I get the open source support part of your comment, but you are taking out the fact Steam/Valve has done a lot ...A LOT...to get games working on Steam. Additionally, for the first time every they have driving Linux marketshare higher than MacOS as a result. So, to dismiss them completely is wrong. They have done a lot for linux....and linux gaming.
Steam On Linux Usage Spikes To Nearly 2% In July, Larger Marketshare Than Apple macOS
You know who the price hikes haven't affected?
Larian Studios has published the official start time for Baldur’s Gate 3, which is a global release and will be available to players around the world at the same time. Release times can be seen below:
Developer Larian has recommended players who have taken part in early access uninstall their game and delete their save files to avoid issues at launch. Unfortunately, players will have to wait until the release time to start their download of the full game as a Baldur’s Gate 3 preload is not available. The game is also quite large, over 100 GB, so make sure you give yourself plenty of time to download it before you start playing.
For all the Barbie fans, here is ...a lot...of pink.
Rice setup:
Kvantum = Deepinv20
GTK= Aura-GTK
Plasma = mkos-BigSur
colors = Blur-Glassy (custom barbie pink #e02189)
Window Decorations = Klassy (custom pink border and round corners)
Icons = Reversal-pink
Cursors = Oxygen Pink Blossom
Konsole Theme = pinkcat console theme
Other components:
Kpple Menu = (custom Barbie head icon)
KDE's floating panels for taskbar and dock
Application Dashboard widget for dock (custom Barbie purse icon)
Virtual Desktop Bar widget used in dock (not recommended for Wayland)
Modern Clock widget used on desktop for date/time
Wunnderground Extended widget for weather in taskbar
gtk3-classic - found in Chaotic-AUR or AUR repos (makes both QT and GTK follow windows decorations)
I would never upgrade without doing a backup of my system so I could revert back. I assume you did not do this?