I really need to figure out how to get a single work app to work on Linux reliably

what work app?

I use it for like 99% of my work, so a virtual machine is kind of useless

i mean, it depends on your computer (like if your cpu & motherboard supports virtualization) but you can in theory get a VM with pretty decent performance

on my m1 macbook i have a windows VM that runs very smoothly and i can effortlessly use a gesture on the touchpad to switch between them. it's pretty cool

on linux it's a little harder to set up (i had to pay like $100 for the software on the mac) but it's doable