Is jumping headfirst into Linux a bad idea? I've never used it before but I'm building a new pc and I'd just rather not deal with Windows 11. If I should make the switch which distro is the best for beginners? I'd need something I can do gaming on. I've heard good things about Pop!_OS, would you guys recommend it?
Jumping in head first is great, as long as you're prepared for the possibility that you might have to fuck with things a little bit, and accept that you have the ability to fuck up. That said, my experience has honestly been that most modern Linux distros have a better out of the box just werks experience than modern windows. I unironically think we've gotten to the point where its easier to have your boomer dad running Linux than windows.
Its also important to remember that if you're messing around in the terminal, and screw something up, its generally pretty hard to break something in a way that you can't fix, given a little time and ingenuity. At the same time, I've definitely been guilty of saying "fuck it, it'll be faster just to reinstall" a few times.
I can't really speak to pop!_os in particular, but as a general rule of thumb, especially as a beginner, you're usually going to be better off sticking to really mainstream distros, and avoiding bespoke forks. Even ones that specifically target Linux beginners. They're typically made by much smaller dev teams, sometimes even a single dev, so its more common to have outdated software, or have bugs slip through the cracks. They tend to be much more poorly documented. And they also tend to work somewhat differently from more mainstream distros, so documentation from, say, arch for example, might not be as applicable in certain areas
Not to say bespoke distros are shit, I just generally think they make more sense for hobbyists, who are really fired up about the cool and innovative way it handles x y and z.
In terms of what distro you should use, aside from something mainstream... As a beginner, I think the most important thing is figuring out what desktop environments you like, and looking at what distros either ship with them, or support them well enough that you can switch cleanly without a headache. There's a ton of other differences beyond that, but IMO, you're better off getting a broad idea of how Linux works, before autistically obsessing about exactly what differences there are under the hood. Once you've gotten your feet wet, you can feel free to develop incredibly strong opinions about what init system, or package manager or display server is best, and spend hours everyday posting about how anyone who doesn't agree with you on every count is a retard, and probably a tranny to boot.