How does one give it a try? Honest question

You can flash a USB drive with an image using Balena or Rufus for example (there are numerous tutorials out there), then insert the USB drive into a port and boot into BIOS/UEFI (depends on your computer how to do that exactly please look it up online), then either set that USB drive to boot priority #1 or (preferrably) use a boot override if your computer is able to do that. Hit Save&Exit and you'll boot Linux from that drive.
That will boot into a live environment where you can try how everything feels, is handled, just look around. At this point, you did not install everything and no permanent changes are made to your computer (except for maybe boot priority).
This way, you can try out different distros with different desktop environments without installing anything.

If I want to maintain my Windows computer, do I need a new computer?

You can install Linux alongside Windows if you have the disk space to spare (a whole separate ssd/hard drive, a free disk partition on your existing drive, or you can split an existing Windows partition).

For experimenting, you can also use a virtual machine (like VirtualBox). Note that you might not get the best possible performance this way. Most Linux distros also have live systems, which means you can boot them from USB stick and use them before you actually install them.

If I was already looking for a laptop, do I just buy the cheapest one and reformat?

Don't waste money on the cheap junk - just get a used laptop!

Does Distro utilize Touch Screen?

Haven't tried. Probably!

You can get USB Image Writer and make a bootable USB of Mint. So you can try it from the USB and even if you choose to install you can choose dual boot so when you turn on your computer you can choose the system you want.

I do this because Battlefied, it’s the only reason I have windows partition, but my day to day I am using Mint… and at work macOS…

I think it’s also a good practice to be able to use any OS… look this guide it might help https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/burn.html

If I want to maintain my Windows computer, do I need a new computer?

You don't need a new computer, but Microsoft's influence in the industry made it really inconvenient to run any other operating system alongside Windows on the same PC.

When you start, you need to change some BIOS settings to be compatible with both Windows and Linux. More annoyingly, every time you switch between them you'll have to change tbe Secure Boot option. Turn it off before booting into Linux and turn it back on before booting into Windows. There are workarounds to that, but they're not beginner friendly.

You also can't install both Windows and Linux on the same drive. Windows likes to "repair" itself from time to time, which ends up breaking the Linux boot loader.

If I was already looking for a laptop, do I just buy the cheapest one and reformat? Does Distro utilize Touch Screen?

ThinkPads have a good track record with Linux support.

Hardware with niche features (like multiple screens on a laptop) will be less likely to have drivers for those features on Linux.

Touch screens don't have a standardized way of connecting to a computer, so support will vary and you'll need to Google it to find out if some laptop model is supported. If it is, pick any distro that uses KDE Plasma or GNOME for its desktop environment and you'll be fine. If you're coming from Windows, I would recommend Plasma over GNOME.

#META

Although lots of the replies to this are useful and informative, this seems like the kind of common and basic question where there should just be a resource we can signpost people to, with easy steps and answers to frequently- encountered issues, presented in an order and with language that supports but does not overwhelm interested parties...

Anyone know of one, or want to help make one?

If I want to maintain my Windows computer, do I need a new computer?

Depends on your SSD size. If you settled for a distro and desktop environment you want to try more long term, you can create another partition on your SSD and install linux there, creating a so-called dual boot. There are many good tutorials on YT how to do that.

If I was already looking for a laptop, do I just buy the cheapest one and reformat? Does Distro utilize Touch Screen?

You can install Linux on any laptop. I run Pop!OS on a Surface Pro 3 tablet, touchscreen works well.

If you want to get a new laptop anyway and are insecure about doing all that partitioning, UEFI, flashing stuff yourself, you can get devices with Linux preinstalled. In the US, theres System76 that come with Pop!OS (an OS based on Ubuntu with System76's own DE), or in Germany there is Tuxedo with their own (also Ubuntu-based) Tuxedo OS with KDE desktop.