Valve make no profit on the consoles themselves right? And if the steam deck profit model of making their money off of games applies to games bought on any handheld, then why not let the other companies have the higher end market and all the research and development costs that making a new console needs. Especially because each new generation would need a refresh to stay on top.(more r and d costs) So why wouldnt valve just keep making their current steam deck that runs stuff well enough for them to keep selling games.
It’s more than likely because Valve doesn’t want to make major sacrifices with the Steam Deck’s overall design/appeal.
Appealing to a higher-end market means that the Steam Deck would be a completely different product, conceptually. I’d define higher end as ROG ALLY and ONEXPLAYER. Not to say that’s always a bad thing. Competition is good, but the device probably would not receive the same level of community support and frequent updates that it has now. Even those aforementioned devices struggle in terms of consistent updates for compatibility.
Playing AAA games on the Steam Deck is possible, yes. However, considering the chipset, most are aware going in that it won’t play EVERYTHING. Even from day one, in terms of power, the Steam Deck was getting beaten out.
Regardless, supporting many different devices with updates/drivers can take a decent amount of resources, especially for newer chips. My guess is that Valve doesn’t want to make any major compromises. We probably won’t see a major upgrade in anything until the Steam Deck 2. But even then, that will be a long way’s off according to Valve’s interviews and I don’t expect it to have the latest chipset anyways.
If anything, Valve is incredibly fortunate that the Steam Deck turned out to be a success. If you’re getting a Steam Deck it’s because you want to play games already on Steam and maybe other stuff too (*hint hint *emulation* wink wink*).