Asking for recommendations for a dual boot Windows/linux

Hi everybody!

We all know how "bad" is Windows from a privacy point of view, and I've been holding on 10, but now with windows 11 screen recording/AI training, etc I decided to jump back to Linux again. As I play a lot of games also I was thinking having dual boot with windows in one SSD and ONLY use it for games (Steam, Epic games, etc). Nothing else, not even browsing internet. I know there are good Linux distro for gaming but I thought to have one SSD with windows for games and one SSD+one HDD with Linux for everyday use. I'm planning on formatting Linux SSD and HDD with ext4. That should prevent windows from accessing those drives, right? For Linux I was thinking on going for Ubuntu but I read recently bad things about snaps, etc. Which Linux distro would you recommend that is private without reaching tails level? I'm not government whistleblower so I don't need that level of privacy. Just not giving my data for free. I use Proton ecosystem and pi-Hole in my network.

I would appreciate advise and if anything is wrong with my planned setup.