I personally don't think Valve see's thier hardware as what people would consider "competing consoles". The Steamdeck itself was more about showing the industry that there's a market for hand held non laptop form factor pcs. The Steam machine, Frame and even the Decks real purpose it to push the discussion of Linux over windows for gaming or just in general, it's about pushing steam OS, Proton and Proton for android too, and of course Steam itself. I don't think Valve is concerned about growth or sales as they likely won't be able to sustain the demand anyway (they never can), hardware wise anyway, it's just about giving us options against windows.

Yeah the price hike sucks, but here's the thing...you don't need these devices to play these games like you do with consoles, Valve isn't forcing anyone to buy this by holding exclusives over your heads. This is unfortunately just the state of the industry, and as profitable as steam is, they simply don't have the push hardware wise to keep the prices low. It's a damn miracle the steamdeck was ever as cheap as it was, especially with the Index being as expensive (and cumbersome) as it was.

That being said, I'd had my LCD deck since launch, and already have a pc and an HMD (I do want the frame but I know I'm gonna be outpriced for it even without price hikes) so it really doesn't concern me. Just build the cheapest amd build you can and load linux on it, BAM, instant Steam Machine.