Oh how I would love to boot up the original MW2 and feel that old rush again but alas, without sandboxing (and even with) the experience is probably not worth my time or money.

just use Alterware and you don’t have to worry about that

That's rather unfortunate, and probably should be illegal that they won't patch it (although they'd never be held accountable) although I think the fact that I'm using Linux would likely make an RCE less severe anyway.