It’s a tough call man. I’ve been using Linux for nearly 20+ years. It’s great, it always has been great. There are a lot of cliches where people just assume because they are a tech enthusiast with Windows they should be competent under Linux as well. It’s just the wrong mindset. I don’t know shit about Windows and the times I have to use it, I just look like a moron. All that to say, your approach needs to be, how does one do this under Linux. What is the Linux way of doing things. The same goes hand in hand for Mac or Windows or and of the other Unix-like operating systems.
If you are stuck on Windows for now, that’s okay, but you should just keep moving little by little toward Linux. Kind of like using OpenOffice, using Audacity, your Arduino software does have a Linux version. Arduino IDE is based on Electron which is basically Chrome. So, if you can run Chrome you can run your Arduino software.
I’m not sure why you were told your hardware was too new to be supported. They could have just switched you to a mainline kernel, even mainline mesa drivers for gaming. There are so many open standards these days, most hardware is supported by default. I can see too old or, for example, you have a cheap Chinese network card that never had Linux drivers written. I’m guessing that’s not your actual problem though. If it were, you could easily buy a cheap network card that is, Linux compatible. You don’t need to replace the entire system just for one peripheral.
Your CNC router software is supported through Parallels for Mac (basically you’ll use a Windows virtual machine), so you can do the same under Linux.
I don’t know about that Cad software, obviously you can run them in a VM no problem. Same with the Sony Vegas Pro software.
I don’t think you are stuck on Windows. You might need to run some of your specialized software in a VM, for the times you need it. Probably wont be bad, you could easily have the Window VM run on a second Virtual Workspace (Similar to Task View which Windows added in Windows 10 I believe) and you just switch to the Virtual Workspace when you need it. Just make sure you pass the GPU through to the VM. Same thing with your CNC machine, you want to pass that through to your VM (just a couple mouse clicks, usually), that’s what they would be doing with Parallels on Mac.
You can try WINE for things. I don’t use WINE to run Windows software. I do use the Proton variant for gaming though. I have used Wine to run the PS5 controller update software for updating my PS5 controller firmware a couple times. I don’t own a PS5 so I have to use the software. That would never have happened ten years ago. But I do all that through Bottles which handles all the WINE and Proton nonsense for me.
It might be better if you go to a LUG (Linux User Group) nearby and get help with all this. None of it’s hard, but the first couple times, things will probably seem overwhelming. Windows isn’t easier, it’s just that everybody is used to all the noise you have to deal with in Windows and so they don’t notice all the crap they deal with. I’m sure the same for me on Linux.
If you delete a program from the Programs folder, does it get uninstalled from the system? Nope. You have to go drag the registry and delete any mentions. You have to go looking for shortcuts and delete all those in multiple locations. If you go to the control panel -> add/remove programs, that works decently, but it’s not guaranteed. It’s been a couple decades since I’ve used windows regularly, but there were all kinds of folders, appdata roaming and that’s just what I remember having to go dig through because there is no real standard for anything. That doesn’t even get into system files and dlls.
There are package managers for Windows too. Choclatey is something I have seen in README.md files for various install instructions.
The Unix-like install locations are for organization. Goes back to Unix-like server oses. Linux is Unix-like as well. Linux doesn’t have a registry to keep track of all the locations for all the files and configurations for each program, so organized locations where the system can expect to find specific things is how it’s done. I much prefer the organized file structure, digging through the registry where there is only the minimal organization was something I always hated.