Well Windows 8 phones were considered to be awesome by those who had one, it’s the lack of support from third party that killed mass adoption.

Also, if we’re looking at the past to decide what is and isn’t possible then gaming on Linux is impossible.

Let’s not pretend that using the desktop on a Deck is a wonderful experience either, Steam’s big picture mode is just a front end that improves the experience and Microsoft could do the equivalent by reusing the Xbox UI with the option to fall back to Windows 11 proper and then people could launch another launcher from there if they wanted. Heck people could launch Steam in big picture mode from their Xbox handheld if they wanted!