Linux Mint Cinnamon and Kubuntu (the KDE version of Ubuntu) are awesome for beginners. If you want a gaming distro, Nobara KDE (Fedora-based) is also pretty cool and newbie-friendly.
There will be some learning curve for sure, but if you're excited about tinkering, I think you'll enjoy most of it. I highly recommend going for the KDE desktop environment (or Cinnamon if you choose Mint), since they're much more similar to the Windows UI and are highly customizable (especially KDE).
You can always leave your Windows installation as dual-boot, just in case you need something that doesn't run on Linux from time to time. Or you can make a minimal Win11 VM (use Tiny11 to root out most of the crapware and disable updates with OOSU10). But for most other software and games, you'll be using Wine and Proton, which also have some learning curve, but are very powerful once you learn how to use them effectively. I haven't booted up my Windows in months.
My last piece of advice will be somewhat controversial - you can use AI chatbots to troubleshoot most common issues on Linux very effectively. Yes, I know, AI sucks and we hate it, but it's so much easier to troubleshoot problems in real time instead of posting on forums and waiting for answers, or searching 5-year old threads with problems that are not quite like yours. It's just a tool, and this is an effective use of it. It made things so much easier for me when I was starting out.
Lastly, welcome to the penguins club! :)