Buy the linen shirt, wash it wrong, love it anyway
Some things are meant to soften, crease and last.
Linen looks best after it has stopped trying. New, it is a little stiff and formal; a dozen washes later it is soft, faintly rumpled and yours in a way new clothes never are.
That is the whole appeal of natural fibres — they age toward character instead of away from it. A crease is not damage, it is patina.
Buy fewer, better pieces in cloth that improves with use, and let the wardrobe get slowly more comfortable every year.