Has it really been that long? Apparently so. Valve originally announced their rebranding of Steam Play with Proton back on August 21st, 2018. Seems like a good time for a quick reflection being halfway to a decade old now with the tech that gave rise to the Steam Deck.
You're massively simplifying it. Proton is a lot more than just "icing" on the top.
while it's definitely not just icing on the cake, they were definitely standing on the shoulders of giants.
No one is denying that. I'm certainly not, and it's not the point of the article either. But people just seem to want to complain, and refuse to just take the win. As always.