I would never recommend Mint to a new user, especially one with newish gaming hardware. While anecdotal, I’ve had serious hardware support issues every time I’ve tried it and I hate the Cinnamon desktop.

Peripheral support is a well known gap on Linux. There is no guarantee you will get things like RGB working, or niche keyboard or mouse macros. It takes a bit of research and tenacity to find your options. Sim enthusiasts have it worse, since they often need proprietary gear that depends on proprietary software.

If you just play PC games are aren’t picky about niche hardware, I will always recommend Bazzite first. If you want more control, then switch to Fedora KDE. If neither of those are good enough for you, nothing will be.

You know when you're in so deep you just need to cut it all off and start over?

I think that's where you're at.

iTunes was kind of a hint.

Isn't there another way than using itunes? I suppose you've done your research...

Apple is never going to help their devices work with non Apple software, I believe the solution here is to ditch the company and its products, as extreme at that may seem.

all the RGB (even for mouse and keyboard), but spent 2 hours trying to make the RAM follow the color scheme, which it never did.

YMMV, but this is the flimsiest complaint I've ever heard of Linux. I'm also avoiding RGB in every component and accessory I can, so it's hard to relate.