I would like to offer a different take on this, even if I’ll be downvoted to hell for it…
So, using Walmart in the US as an example:
They hire people to push carts from the cart returns back to the building and those people are also responsible for snagging the stragglers as well. By putting the cart back in the correct place you are reducing the amount of work that an hourly employee has to do during their shift, thereby reducing their potential hours and potential pay.
For me, it’s the same reason I hate the self checkout, because I’m not getting a discount for running a self serve register but Walmart is saving money by not paying an employee to do it.
I get how using a self checkout is nice because I don’t have to deal with a human, but the human I no longer have to deal with is another potential employee that was getting a paycheck…
As long as you aren’t expecting it to run games like it has a RTX4090 in it, and are fine with the limitations of both the battery life away from a charger and the fact that some games might have issues related to the fact that the SteamDeck runs Linux, you will probably not regret your purchase.
The new OLED version is slightly updated for better thermals, and from what I’ve read is slightly more capable than the OG Deck.
I have had an OG deck since I got the chance to purchase after putting $5 down to pre order (I want to say a little over 2 years?) and the most demanding game I’ve played on it was Baulders Gate 3, and I had no issues with performance, and the small screen at 1280x800 resolution looks good on the OG but I’ve heard the OLED is even better.
I just bought my sister in law a Refurbished 512 OG Deck for $379 after tax/shipping, which about half what I paid for mine as an early adopter. You might see if you can pick up a refurbished one or get the OLED with a smaller SSD and upgrade it yourself.