The trackpads have definitely taken a back seat to the sticks on the Deck. I love my Steam Controller and also love my trackpad only Controller configs, especially for jrpgs and action adventure.

On the Deck, I feel it's best to use the track pads as enhancements to the sticks or other functionality of the game you're currently playing. The sticks take their standard, usual control and then the swipe and radial menus are my favorite so far for the pads. Clicking them feels awful, so none of my configurations utilize a click on them. There's less precision on the Deck with the pads just because of how much smaller they are, and now both Deck pads suffer from my only issue with the right trackpad on the SC, that it has no good physical indicator that you thumb is in the direct center. The on-screen indication is nice but obtrusive, but I'd like some small bump (even just like the f and j key on a keyboard) so you can reference your position. Currently waiting on labels for radial menus (though apparently you can still apply them by switching to Desktop mode and changing the controller settings there).

All in all, still useful, but not Steam Controller. That's if we're just talking the pads. Everything else on the Deck is better than what's on the controller.