The price being almost the same as a Steam Deck is really surprising. Since the Wii (maybe even the GC? I can't remember, I only had a PS2 from that generation

The price being almost the same as a Steam Deck is really surprising. Since the Wii (maybe even the GC? I can't remember, I only had a PS2 from that generation when it was active, and only got that about the time the PS3 was about to come out, so I don't remember their relative price positioning that generation) they've been the "sure you'll spend more on games because they don't have meaningful sales and used prices remain high, and the hardware's 'underpowered', but the games will be really good and the console price is pretty low!" console. This is... a weird departure from that.