When the Steam Deck was still just an idea, Valve says some staff were like, "I just want that for me" and "the point wasn't even to make a product out of it"
In the early days I thought it would be some niche gimmick that would never take off. Turns out it wasn't and it's the best handheld gaming machine ever made.
I adore mine. Not the best for GPU-intensive games like Elden Ring or Resident Evil 4 remake.... But for essentially everything else it's just the best.
Minecraft, 90fps
Balatro, Slay The Spire, Binding of Isaac and similar.... 90fps
Dark Souls 1-3 - 90fps!
I only have a switch because of my nephew. It hardly gets any use otherwise. Then i found balantro and now it's basically a balantro machine. I do wish i had a steam deck instead of a switch.
To be fair I have invested in a lot of their "niche gimmicks that will never take off". I've owned the steam link and the OG steam controller (my dad still uses that controller to game, he really likes it). I love the steam deck but none of the handhelds have the right ergonomics for my little hands except the Switch, and so I use mine docked. But even then it's a game changer not needing a huge gaming rig to play games.