Has it really been that long? Apparently so. Valve originally announced their rebranding of Steam Play with Proton back on August 21st, 2018. Seems like a good time for a quick reflection being halfway to a decade old now with the tech that gave rise to the Steam Deck.
Wine is the best emulator.
(It would be a mistake to call it a hardware emulator, but that’s not the only kind of emulator.)