I sympathize with your feelings, I would probably feel the same way.

That’s how the tech world works though, with time better and cheaper products come out, if you want the best deal you should wait for a new product and get the previous gen, if you don’t want to wait you should buy it when it comes out.
The longer you wait the bigger the chance for a new version coming out in the immediate future is, which in turn means you get a bad deal.
If you bought a phone last year for $500 the phone you buy this year for that money probably is significantly better.

This is kind of predictable behavior, we don’t have the insights on what companies do and it would be financially unwise for them to tell you, but you know this is how it is, so you should make your purchases with these considerations in mind.
You still got an amazing product at a good value all considering, you took a calculated risk and you decided that your purchase is worth it, this is the same when trading stock, you calculate the risk and make a purchase knowing that the value can change at any time not in your favor.

If you want to turn a bad situation into a good one, hold on to the deck for a few decades, you might be able to sell it for a profit eventually.

Enjoy your steam deck, it’s still a lovely device at a good value 🙂

Even if I managed to sell my current deck at the price of a certified refurbished one I would still need to pay an extra $250 for the base OLED, not worth it.
If I could upgrade for $150 then I’d be really tempted, although it would still be an unwise expense.

I envy the people buying their first deck now, they have a great choice.
I’ll stick with mine for the time being, even though I’m extremely tempted