Hah! I had roughly the same route; I held out for things to improve on MacOS up until Catalina, then drifted around to settle on NixOS. Funny how things work out like that.
Largely though, I agree with your conclusion. It speaks volumes that Apple's most significant GPU translation efforts to-date (Game Porting Toolkit) is largely based on Open Source DXVK code. Apple and Microsoft basically have the same tactic now; push a high-level GPU API across your software platforms, using your clout to force developers onto it and 'lock them in' to your ecosystem, so to speak. The bigwigs might try to tell you that this is necessary for a quality native port, but I've doubted those words since I beat Elden Ring on Linux. Apple publishing the G.P.T. is their shameful admission that a Vulkan driver would fix gaming on Mac.
My understanding is that GPT can't actually be used to port a game to sell, ostensibly it is for proving out performance possibilities available from when you do port your game (to native metal). Has that changed?
To me it sounded like there was a group within Apple that wants to create an emulation layer (and did essentially) but that leadership hates the idea and in its current state it is a compromise that it even exists at all.
yeah, like I said. Tim Cook is neither a gamer, nor a programmer, nor an open-source advocate. Any one of these might open the door, but if you have none of them? Best of luck.
> To me it sounded like there was a group within Apple that wants to create an emulation layer (and did essentially) but that leadership hates the idea and in its current state it is a compromise that it even exists at all.
Heh, I hadn't heard that, but I can totally believe it. Openness really isn't their forte.
Largely though, I agree with your conclusion. It speaks volumes that Apple's most significant GPU translation efforts to-date (Game Porting Toolkit) is largely based on Open Source DXVK code. Apple and Microsoft basically have the same tactic now; push a high-level GPU API across your software platforms, using your clout to force developers onto it and 'lock them in' to your ecosystem, so to speak. The bigwigs might try to tell you that this is necessary for a quality native port, but I've doubted those words since I beat Elden Ring on Linux. Apple publishing the G.P.T. is their shameful admission that a Vulkan driver would fix gaming on Mac.