Has it really been that long? Apparently so. Valve originally announced their rebranding of Steam Play with Proton back on August 21st, 2018. Seems like a good time for a quick reflection being halfway to a decade old now with the tech that gave rise to the Steam Deck.
It is so nice on my steam deck, I just started installing games on my laptop and it works like a charm.
and with Heroic Launcher, you can play the free games from Epic Store.