Interesting — how easy are they to install compared to Mint, and would there be a way for Mint friends (I have a NixOS config for my fleet, and run our shared services) to easily migrate?
This still doesn't help if the server is on the server blocklist, which Microsoft can add your server to. Mods that disable the blocklist violate the EULA.
Yes, they can — Minecraft consults a Microsoft-managed, dynamically updatable blocklist of server IPs, regardless of who owns the server. In addition, Minecraft has functionality to ban players from authenticating to any multiplayer server.
Don't run sha256sum -c on your suspect file — it expects to be passed a file containing hashes and other filenames. sha256sum the iso itself instead and check by eye, or make such a hash file.
Yeah, I'm used to NixOS — however, having to edit the config (instead of e.g. a package manager) is a common pain point I see when others use NixOS, and it often leads to them switching distros.
Your Steam Deck is a PC, by the way. Your existing methods should work.