Yeach i have a high suspicion a lot of those gains is not ( or not only ) beacuse linux is gaining popularity but beacuse desktop pcs are loosing one. Especialy if the methodology is based on web stats ( i myself quite often use smartphone to browse even if i actually use pc right now to do whatewer im doing right now ).
But that’s my point. Pepole abandoning pc all together are likely for lack of the better word normies that are very very unlikely to use linux. Wheras pepole who are sticking with PC for whatewer reasons are more likely to be in a group that uses linux. Its just a hypotesis tho , nothing more than a mere speculation.