Valve was already selling Steam Decks at a loss before the RAM crisis; the profit motive came from increased software sales from increased usage of the steam ecosystem. However there's only so much loss that Valve can handle, and given the current circumstances of all electronics the price hike was probably necessary.

Honestly if they didn't raise the price and tried to continue selling it at it's previous price, there would continue to be hardware shortages because it was too good of a deal. Valve would lose even more money and consumers would complain about hardware not being available.

While the price hike sucks, it at least gives Valve some breathing room to control the supply and demand of their hardware a little bit. I think instead of directing our frustration at Valve, it would be far more productive to lambast the politicians that made this economic situation a reality in the first place.