A Linux native desktop version (GOG) would be greatly appreciated and bought with haste by this longtime member of the growing Linux gaming market.

As classl3ss observed, Wine is a possible half-measure but there is the case to normalize Linux support. While I would not want to discount possible hitches with the variety of Linux configurations,

GOG Linux versions are supposed to be distribution-agnostic and do not need containers like Docker/Flatpak: https://docs.gog.com/linux-guidelines/
and Linux games tend to benefit from a supportive and able community..

Originally Posted by crst
Why would people prefer Linux over windows?? Especially for gaming..

To such a question there are many possible answers found in dedicated internet threads, with some given in above posts - Vulkan, SDL, OS preferences, unsuitability of VMs on hardware .. so generally speaking of these modern OSs, "Why would people want to stop everything to run an app on a possibly unsatisfactory OS when their preferred multitasking OS performs as well and perhaps better depending on configuration?"