Linux is great for gaming in the overall sense. Unless you play one of those games that for sure is not playable on Linux, in which case I personally don't care for those games since I have plenty of games to be entertained. Sometimes we want or need to use specific programs and the best thing to do is limit our exposure, harden privacy. In which cases I suggest trying to be anonymous when using Twitter or Discord, and other social networks and prefer to have them on a browser tab instead of downloading an app to minimize the amount of the system information they can get. Of course all that along with going to their settings and harden it for privacy too per your use-case. There is some social networks that in my eyes are a prohibited no matter what like facebook, and others that my use went from 100% to 10% like with google. 10% being YouTube and Maps. For VPN, well, is tricky. 1st is not always really needed, it has its uses. Many don't really need it. 2nd you'll want to avoid the free ones but there is a workaround like getting it along with other services like ProtonVPN or paying for discounted lifetime accounts when you see those promos. That way is way cheaper but is still a pay service.

I agree with most of the suggestions here, but I'm not sure why Telegram, a proprietary application that is not E2EE by default (and whose encryption is their own standard anyway) is touted as a privacy-friendly chat app alternative.