Yeah, it's actually really easy to do the Linux environment with Crouton which means you have Wine which means you have access to some Windows apps. Crouton even makes it so you don't have to dual-boot. It's all in one environment. Gaming is definitely the stickler- though you have Linux and there's a lot more games available there than there once was. The Chrome web store does have an assortment of games as well but nothing that's going to blow your mind.
But not getting Windows apps only matters if the Windows apps you want are impossible to replace or if they have a function that alternatives don't. That would certainly be true of some games and certain advanced features of MS Office (seriously not like stuff every day Excel users would play with, crazy advanced stuff). I haven't played with Office 365 so some of those less widely implemented features might be available there anyway (and wouldn't even require Crouton or Crubuntu).
And the architecture is a good bit different than Android. If it was actually Android I'd be happier because that would mean Android apps are easy to use there. They aren't until recently with App Runtime for Chrome (which I believe will also eventually work in your standard Chrome on other OSes).
So, yeah, they don't run Windows apps but just saying that definitely oversimplifies things.
My girlfriend has been using one for a year now and every time I bring up Crouton she's like, "Why, I don't even need that."