Depending on our use case, one of the newer 3rd party SteamOS handhelds may be a better option. Steam Deck does not ramp up performance when connected to a power source, for example. OTOH, if your use case is mainly portable with long battery life (so not ramping up performance by spending more energy), the performance difference to the newer devices is non existent any more, even skewed slightly towards the Deck.

Do yourself a favor and get the OLED model. The OG Deck’s LCD screen is really bad by today’s standards. The OLED screen and the dual touchpads are the two features that still stand out compared to the more recent competition. I don’t use the touchpads that often, though. For me personally, there are no must haves.