I saw your conversation on the simracing-channel and there seems to be some progress. I just realized from my notes that my handbrake does not cause any issues under linux even if it looks the same as yours. (They must have implemented the software differently on mine). I had to make some adjustments for the pedals and H-shifter but not the handbrake and just misremembered, sorry. Protopedal is what I used to get around the bug in proton, though. I think proton does not recognize a usb device as controller, if it does not have a certain number of buttons and/or axes.

I am glad to hear you got it to work! I think I took notes on how I got it to work. But I remember having also added a similar rule as you did at some point. I may be able to find my notes tomorrow.

I am pretty sure you need to configure more (fake) buttons for the handbrake, I had the same problem. Otherwise it does not get recognized as a gaming device.

I can look up later how I solved this or you can ask the simracing linux community, which helped me with a couple of similar pronlems before:

A place for all the niche of niche gamers to discuss and join other simracers!
Join the Simracing space here https://matrix.to/#/#simracing:matrix.org

Yeah, a sff mini pc draws below 10 W on idle, so the math is about right, even if a gaming PC can also draw as low as 40 Watt on idle if you buy a reasonably powered gpu.

Matrix seems a bit overkill. I think they would be better off with something like gotify.

Take a look at dontkillmyapp.com to see if your phone provider hinders your messages.

There is unified push as Google alternative as well, which works with the schildichat matrix client.

I would think it moral to download the discs you own as rips. Get a vpn for a month and download away. This would be a lot less time and electrical energy consuming compared to ripping them yourself. Also somebody else has already dealt with drm bullshit.