My Gmail account has the Inactive Account Manager thing turned on so if I don’t use my account for 6 months it’ll email my wife my Bitwarden master password and instructions to get my self-host nerd into it where he can then do whatever he wants with it.
You try the freezer trick? If not, put it in a plastic bag in the freezer for a few hours. The cold can make some things work a bit better and maybe for long enough to recover what you need. Doesn’t always work but it’s cheaper than professional data recovery.
Echoing what others have said, a “gaming distro” really isn’t necessary. I have used Ubuntu for years on and off. When I switched my gaming PC to Linux earlier this year I went with Kubuntu, because it’s just Ubuntu and I like KDE Plasma better than Gnome. I do feel like Ubuntu is one of the easiest to find support for when you’re looking online.
Anything Deloitte touches is crap and their employees are as incompetent as they come. Source: my work contracts with Deloitte regularly.