So the way the statement about Qualcomm supporting Linux was phrased made it seem like a blanket statement rather than referring to specifically the X1 Elite. The fact that Qualcomm's Linux support seems to vary wildly based on the specific CPU is interesting and suggests it's less about the CPU or Linux and more about the visibility and importance of the companies using that CPU. The X1 Elite got first class Windows support (although it sounds like only some specific laptops did) because certain large manufacturers were using it. Likewise the 8 Elite Gen 5 is getting first class Linux support because Valve is using it in a high visibility project.

If there's a silver lining to this it sounds like Valve is doing the right thing by the FOSS community and is paying to have a company contribute bug fixes and improvements to the Vulkan drivers and FEX project for ARM in general and for this specific CPU. That combined with Qualcomm themselves wanting to look good and provide support should mean at least this CPU should work very well in Linux, and maybe that will also make it a little easier to support other Qualcomm CPUs as well. It's just a shame that that level of Linux support by Qualcomm doesn't extend to all their products.