Don’t get me wrong, I know the Steam Deck will remain a relatively niche device for the foreseeable future, but all the vast myriad number of minor improvements to the OLED besides the screen makes it an all around much more convenient, user-friendly device, from the easy to use thumbsticks, clicker buttons, and 60% faster downloads and game set up, to the 40% longet battery, more memory, and 7% more frame rate. All of these improvements are small, but I only touched upon a few of them, and all together they may not make a big difference for “hardcore” PC gamers, but make a bigger difference for the semi casual gamers. Again, I don’t see it drawing in a whole new audience, but I do see it expanding Valve’s customer base at the margins. I believe we will slowly see the Steam Deck become an almost-mainstream device 10 years from now. It will never sell like the Switch, but that’s okay. It will still become more popular over time.
Just accept the original Deck was more of a Beta. Even when I got it I could t believe how bad the screen was even for LCD standards. My V1 Switch had a better screen I made many posts about this and got downvoted. Not having WiFi 6 was also a big deal for me at the time when WiFi 6 was already common. Finally the crap touchscreen was something I noticed right away. Also the input lag was a known issue. I sold my original Deck and moved in to the ROG Ally, but I’m glad Valve finally addressed all these issues. Oh yeah forgot to mention the original delta fans were very loud I hated it.