You're conceding my exact point back to me. Linux-compatible anticheat uses many of the same pre-TPM measures that Windows 10 used to combat software cheating, and prevents the 95% majority of software hacks and process injection. The remaining minority of cheaters cannot be stopped on Linux any easier than you can stop them on Windows. Both OSes have escape hatches that cannot be easily closed.

Which is why I said, even if Linux enforced TPMs, secure runtimes and signed kernels, you'd still be loading firmware blobs and trusting HID/PCI hardware just the same as Windows. Linux would still be attacked, singled-out and made a pariah regardless, so it's good that Valve and the kernel devs generally ignore these design suggestions.

Now I'm wondering if launching windows through a VM would allow me to play those games.

Opposing that logic, we should only support 1 or 2 GPUs (just like consoles) and lock down Windows to run nothing but games. Then the problem will actually be solved, like on PS5 and XBox!

Really, "stopping cheaters" is a slippery slope and it's worth pointing out that cheaters persist (on both OSes) regardless. Some measures have a negligible impact on the OS, others are a dealbreaker that would cause people to abandon the platform. In an age of realtime AI inference and sub-milisecond computer vision, all peripherals and apps are suspect. There are people cheating with unblockable methods right now, and those people will continue to exist for as long as Windows supports any degree of third-party software or hardware.