I would suggest giving native DAWs a solid try, if you find something that clicks staying on the native Pipewire/JACK system is so much nicer than window’s, on top of the inevitable emulation/translation jankiness. Bitwig and REAPER are the big ones, but depending on your workflow/focus you can find other alternatives. There’s also a bunch of native “digital audio gear” that is pretty sweet - check out Cardinal!

Windows VSTs can be tricky, always check if there is a native Linux release, otherwise you will have to run it through some compatibility layer and pray your divinity of choice, although you should have a good number of guides available. I suggest checking out some of the native alternatives here too, for example I use LSP plugins for compressors, EQs, and adjacent things