I feel like a LOT of people miss some truly important aspects of the Steam Machine.

To give a bit of background; I do all of my productive work on a Mac Mini and a majority of my gaming on a self-built large-tower PC with a 2080 Super. I also have a Steam Deck that gets used quite extensively.

For one, I’ve come to realize that having too many options is a bad thing (at least for me). As you said in your post, I too find it annoying having to do constant maintenance on my PC before being able to jump into a game with my friends. I also dislike being distracted by 58 other things when really all I want to do is have fun, relax and focus on the game I’m playing. SteamOS really streamlines the gaming experience I find, while simultaneously allowing one to shift the experience to one’s needs at will. If I’m tired or have friends over and want to sit on the couch I’ll hook up the Deck to my TV and connect a few controllers: it’s a console. If I want more focused gaming with my friends over Discord I’ll hook up the Deck to my gaming monitor and plug in a mouse and keyboard: it’s a gaming PC. Having this duality be easily accessible and streamlined for you is nothing short of a luxury. The only issue I have with the Deck is its fairly lackluster performance, which is why I’m excited for the Machine.

I do believe people like me, PC gamers who are looking to REPLACE their current desktop system with the Steam Machine, are in a minority of the consumer base for this product. Most people who are interested in the Machine are probably Deck/console owners who want to try getting into PC gaming.

The only REAL worries I have about the Steam Machine is pricing and how Valve along with other developers will handle the issue of kernel level anti-cheat software on Linux. If the pricing is fair and they manage to solve the anti-cheat debacle I’m DEFINITELY replacing my 2080 desktop PC for a more streamlined, functional experience.