CodeWeavers, also a for profit company, has indeed been at it for decades. I used to pay them to run Outlook something like 20 years ago.

If you want to imply that Valve is not contributing, your own statement works against you. Wine is not new. CodeWeavers is not new. Yet gaming on Linux only really became a thing once Valve got involved.

Most people still cannot install or configure Wine. But they can use Proton in Steam. People gaming everyday still cannot get Office or Photoshop to work. They can play Steam games but would struggle to make StarCraft run (not in Steam).

Valve is organizing all the bits to make an actual ecosystem work. It is why they created Proton vs just sending patches to Wine. It is why they have gamescope. It is why they fund FEX. If is why they created the Steamdeck and Steam Machine.

I have loved CodeWeavers literally for decades. But minimizing the impact that Valve has had on Linux gaming makes no sense.