Secure Boot ensures that it's impossible to run a rootkit, even if the user accidentally installs one. Instead of booting into corrupted Windows, the system would fail to boot.
It's definitely harder, but not impossible. The Realtek signing driver was stolen multiple times already, and I personally know that certificate management practices (in Asia in general) is abysmal.
(Context: I wrote a significant portion of the infrastructure used to support Linux booting on systems with UEFI Secure Boot)