

It is a product of its time. If the same research was made 30 years ago, I bet there would be a stark difference to results today. LTO wasn’t as feasible. Compilers were less capable of removing redundant checks. Branch prediction in x86 processors was still a hot new thing. And on top of it all, there was less knowledge about language development.
It’s trivial. Use Linux Mint or Debian, enable non-free repositories if required, and that’s pretty much it.
I’ve never had issues with Nvidia drivers. Your mileage may vary.