I had the same on my 5 year old gaming rig. Turns out only thing blocking it was TPM being disabled. I reluctantly upgraded, as I have too many files on my PC needed for my wife’s visa process, as well as a 2 year old toddler, so I really don’t currently have the time to sort through, and backup all the files, and then install Linux.
You speak a lot of truth, and something I subconsciously know I should have been doing.
How do you recommend I do it? Buy an external HDD/SSD and manually copy everything across once a week or so?