[badsectoracula]

> Like the volume controls on my keyboard don't work

Perhaps some dockapp will work? Window Maker does not really handle volume controls itself, but you can use some other application for that stuff. My USB headset's volume controls do work but AFAIK that is done via Pulseaudio.

> some loading screen windows for some games flicker like hell... I'm sure these are solvable.

Not sure this is a Window Maker issue, perhaps it is some issue with the game or with Wine/Proton that if you use a compositor it masks it?

I often use Gamescope for games that do not work with Linux desktop nicely (also lets me switch virtual desktops seamlessly). I have my own fork of gamescope[0] that allows remapping keys which helps a lot with some indie games that do not do proper remapping too. Note though that this is almost two years old out of sync with Valve's gamescope (i should try and bring it up to date at some point).

[0] https://github.com/badsectoracula/gamescope/