It’s a lot better than it used to be, from a Linux perspective. I switched to Mint a few months ago and it can be a bit fiddly, but I haven’t had any real issues with any of the games I’ve tried. Admittedly, that’s all through Steam, but still.

This tracks with everything else they’ve been doing. They don’t care about life, they care about control, which this highlights perfectly.

The laptop’s definitely more versatile, but there’s something to be said for the handheld form factor. If you’re on transit or something, you’re not going to want to whip out a laptop. If you’re just using it at home, though, laptop all the way.

I think it’s reasonable in that the same kids who get into the difficult, complex parts of Minecraft are likely the same sort who would enjoy something like Myst. You’re right that it’s far from a perfect comparison (two very different genres, after all), but there’s something in it as well.

I’d suggest you look into some of what’s possible in Minecraft before dismissing it. The basics are simplistic, but the moment you start dipping into redstone builds you’re opening up an entirely different, entirely more complicated can of worms. Some of the mods available also expand that complexity greatly - Create, for example. It’s a different genre of difficulty than what’s offered by puzzle-based games, but I don’t think it’s possible to argue that there isn’t depth to it. Factorio’s another one which I’d name as offering significant complexity in the same vein.

I’d also note that Myst is almost generation defining in terms of its complexity. I’d be hard pressed to point towards many other games that were on par with it from its time (and I’m intentionally excluding some of the classic text adventures here, which were difficult in ways unfair to the player).