The only thing to be careful with about building a brand new computer is sometimes the linux kernel takes a little while to catch up and support the latest hardware for some things. So maybe if any components you’re planning to use are very new, look them up and see if they are supported yet.
As for a distro I always recommend Mint. Your plan to try out a bunch of them on a VM is a great idea.
You wouldn’t expect to be able to run Windows software on a Mac, why expect to be able to run Windows software on Linux?
Having said that, it’s true that you actually can run some windows software through Wine but it’s a hack and it’s not going to work as well as it would on the OS it was designed for.
But there are also things like Java and Electron applications that run natively on linux and just as well as on windows.
As for Minecraft Java edition, I just downloaded the Minecraft launcher .deb from minecraft.net and installed it, and it runs perfectly. You can’t really complain that your pirated stuff isn’t work right, lol.
edit to add: An easier way for your friend to try out Linux would be to either run it on a virtual machine within Windows, or boot from a live USB (that’s slower though).