I thought the steam deck would have been priced higher than it was as well, so I thought that they’d probably surprise us with a $600 machine. $800 made sense for the specs (Now I expect it to be $1000)
Once GPU prices super inflated 6 or 7 years ago, I got out of PC gaming for new titles. I built a top spec machine for $1200 in 2012 (when I had disposable income and no kids), that barely gets you an entry level today. I guess PC gaming, for new titles at least, will forever be out of my budget.