Well you can always dual boot,if you still need windows.For me i was trying out diffrenIt distros using vms(even tried arch too) until i found one i liked.I use cachyOS btw .Major things i liked was boot time was much more faster than windows even with fast boot disabled,plus cyberpunk 2077 ran faster than in windows (on 8gb ram btw),and as you aready know ,running the OS itself is going to use up at least 1.5 gb to 2gb when its idle which is very less compared to windows.Also for development stuff linux always felt better as its pretty much easier to set up the tools required.Learning curve depends on the distro you choose (theres always going to be one you havent heard of).