Unless the Steamdeck flew under your radar you should know that you can absolutly play games on Linux. Most of the exceptions are big online games with crazy anti-cheats (yeah in that case no luck).
As for hope : migrating to another OS (be it Linux, MacOS or whatever) can be disorienting at first, wich tend to repel some people (it's like learning how to use a pc for the first time), that's actually the most important thing to keep in mind for everything to go smoothly, you don't need to be a tech wizzard, just to be patient.
As long as you don't rush things, don't expect everything to behave as somekind of windows clone and learn how it works a bit you should be fine.
Before you try anything I'd also suggest you check if all the software you are using are available on Linux and if not what alternative you can use : alternativeto.net can help. To check if the games you play work you can also go to protondb.com. Preparing as much as you can before install is a huge plus, and it's really not that hard.
As an exemple I've helped a curious friend who wanted to try Linux, they're the most tech illiterate person I've ever known..like even worse than some old people. It took them two hard month to be fully acclimated, like as fine as they were doing on windows if not better. Never even asked me for help ever since. (My eyes still bleed when I see how they're using their pc but they clearly have no issue doing whatever they're doing) So if they can I'm sure anyone can.
It's because it's quite popular so alot of people know it exists, but yes it's a handheld console made by steam and it's using linux, it's basicly a Linux console.