It’s a net positive, not a negative: using ESDF means you have a bunch of keys available to the left of your movement keys.
Sure, it can be a pain if a game forces WASD, but otherwise you’re not the person having to lift your hand off the movement keys (or buying an MMO mouse) to have the same flexibility. 😄
Yep, with the desktop versions of Signal, Matrix (Element) and Steam chat.
I’m yet to try out gamemode, which may help. But I typically close Signal and Element when I’m gaming, so it’s usually not an issue for me.
Edit: I’m on EndeavourOS, KDE, i7, 16GB, Nvidia 2060.