The search for the correct amount of split-lock misery

All of the above is pretty much invalidated by "on windows."
We all know that user account permissions on windows are a total mess.

The point is that high permissions should *never* be required for installing and running a game, which does nothing but:
1) download some files
2) copy them into the home directory
3) launch an executable
4) access graphics APIs/sound APIs/input APIs

NONE of those things have ever warranted elevated privledges. Wine has continued doing it's thing for over a decade now without requiring sudo even once. The use of sudo wasn't needed when the ability to trap and redirect windows syscalls was added to the linux kernel, it sure as hell shouldn't be required because of a performance knob.