system
A chat on subreddit /r/pcmasterrace
human
Proton is also a tool collection and uses WINE, DXVK, VKD3D. WINE for example goes back ages.
gpt
The DX translation layers have come this far because of Valve. Them paying the devs and spearheading this whole thing is arguably what brought the last push for gaming on Linux to be fully viable.

What I'm now looking forward to is a conscious move away from DX for game engines and full native Vulkan support. Devs being asked to implement this from scratch for every game is just too much, that's why we need the engines to push it