The next "unsolvable" Linux issue valve needs to work on. Widevine
In the last 5 years, valve has fixed like 10 different "this will never work with linux" problems. From getting windows native applications to run flawlessly through proton, to getting HDR implemented in linux, to getting easy-anticheat and battleye working on linux by coordinating with those vendors, to getting CEC working on the upcoming steam machine. There's one huge problem on Linux that I can't realistically think of a solution for, but hopefully, valve can.
The reason you can't get full resolution netflix on linux is because of DRM. I won't pretend to be an expert on this topic. Everything i know about it I learned in a handful of google searches. But as I understand it, netflix (and most other streaming sites) lock full resolution content, hdr, and any other features behind DRM. The reason windows is able to use full resolution netflix is because, like most streaming applications, they use Widevine. Widevine is a google DRM system that almost all major streaming services use. Its what lets you watch disney plus in your browser. There are multiple levels to widevine. L1, L2, and L3. L3 widevine is what linux is able to use. Its why you can watch netflix at all. L1 is the proper widevine implementation that is used on android, windows, macos, etc.
Widevine L1 requires a chain of trust (leveraging google's name value) and a protected pathway to the content. The open-ness of linux is what makes this impossible. There are no completely restricted elements of the operating system. No area, no directory or file that an ambitious user couldn't get access to. This doesn't jive with HDR. They don't want people finding ways to play a full resolution stream and capture the full contents of it. Basically there needs to be an encrypted black-box between the content source, until it physically displays on your monitor.
I can only think of a few ways valve could realistically solve this. 1) Create some sort of alternative to widevine. 2) possibly create a sectioned off part of steamOS thus making it not fully open source, and 3) offloading video processing to some other component on the steam machine. Although this wouldn't work for general steamos installs.
But that's the great part! I'm not valve. I didn't think they'd get lots of the linux solutions implemented yet here we are. I'm really curious to see if valve would be able to solve the linux drm problem. Anyway I hope someone at valve is working on it. And i hope i didn't butcher the widevine explanation too badly