Proton is integrated with the Steam app in Linux, so usually you just install the game and then run it from Steam and it just works in Linux even though it’s a Windows game, without you having to know anything about Proton.

Similarly with you can use something like Lutris or Heroic which does the same for Wine and game stores like GOG (it even integrated with the store and downloads the game for you, same as the Steam app).

For some games you might have to end up to know enough to tweek settings, though for Steam and Proton that’s often just changing the Proton version you’re using for a game in its game launch setting in Steam, which is hardly complicated.

The need to really understand what’s under the hood is generally only when leaving these standard paths: for example if you’re trying to run a pirated version of a game (which might even be for perfectly legit reasons: for example one of my Steam games won’t run in Linux no matter what I do, but the pirated version works fine, probably because of the DRM in the official version) or some old obscure game CD you have around, as the scripts in Steam, Lutris or Heroic that silently configure Proton/Wine correctly for a game might not at all exist for those unofficial or older installers.