If you’re going to self-hosted instead of using a VPS (I know you said you’re looking at a VPS solution, this is just in case) make sure you can segregate your networks. A router that allows you to create virtual LANs, same with the access points and switches if needed.
You don’t want to expose all your devices to the internet for a few services.
If you’re using an Nvidia card, the easiest way into Linux for gaming (in my opinion) is Bazzite, as aguasemgas mentioned.
Otherwise, any distro will do. I prefer Fedora Workstation, which is what I use for work (as do my wife and kids) but use Bazzite in my laptop because it’s a System76 Gazelle with a 3050TI,and I don’t like the current status of PopOS. All my games run great, and everything else is a FlatPak, so not much need to tweak anything really.
I’ve been wondering the same for a couple of years now. I tried it once, and it’s garbage. I never hear about it in forums, YouTube, Mastodon, Lemmy or any other place, but they are always top 10. WTF? 🤣
You can still run the smart switches locally if you have the ones that support matter. But yeah, the old ones do require internet connection, which sucks.
If you like “unlikely to break, don’t mind my software and kernel a bit behind”, anything Debian or Ubuntu based will be fine. Now, if you want cutting edge, even if you have to get pissed and confused a bit, Arch or Fedora based, in my opinion.
At the end of the day it comes down to taste and need. They all work (mostly 😋).
This is the best advice, in my opinion, keeping your data in a separate partition (or a separate drive if possible). This makes distro-hopping a breeze, since your data remains intact between distros.
After that, jump around as much as you want until you find something you’re comfortable with.
Shit, and I just finished my quarterly distro-hop run last weekend. Now I have to take this for a spin 🤣🤣