To be honest... This will come. It will be used. And it even will be practical, to some amount.

The question is how they're making you pay for it.

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If I remember correctly, some ten years ago it was speculated that Intel might buy Nvidia (to be able to fully compete with AMD who had CPUs and GPUs already). Things can turn around...

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But the approach towards the official Linux support from the shot callers was dismissive on the grounds of the low number of customers.

I totally understand that. Not every company has got the bags of money Valve seems to have.

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We used to have a time when Windows users complained about Linux ports

...but why? I don't understand the logic behind this.

(To be more precise than above: They didn't complain about their quality, but about their very existence.)

Don't ask me. :D
Wanting to be the only one (being supported)?
Fearing it takes away resources?
Having tried Linux, not having been able to cope with it, and now hating it? (I saw some trolls which seem to have this story.)

What baffles me more is the next though:

Nowadays, this job has been taken by Linux users.

(For the records: They mostly don't complain about their quality, but about their very existence.)

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You can do that with most laptops afaik.

Sure, you should be able to do this with every laptop (given a power bank yielding enough power).
Never seen anybody actually doing that though.

Part of the appeal of a handheld over a laptop is not having to lug around a giant power brick if you want full performance, having said that given the efficiency of newer slim-line laptops you can get decent performance on battery nowadays. and they can sit on your lap (belly) quite comfortably. A portable PC handhelds advantage is too be ..err portable :p

Well, yes, and to last long without a power chord, which are contradictory goals.
I wonder - I really do - how many people are only using the portability as far as to their sofa and bed.

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The decision to have an external battery sounds strange at first. But then, maybe it feels fine, having a lighter device in ones hands while the bulky battery sits on the table or wherever.

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FWIW, the introduction of Proton didn't decrease the proportion of games on Steam that have native builds - that was on the decline since the failure of the Steam Machines. It did kill the third-party porting market, though.

... and with it the bigger games.

The thing that will bring the proportion back up is a bigger more lucrative market

... unless Linux gamers were saying for years and years that companies shouldn't port, maybe. Would be happy to be wrong on this one, but I'd prefer us to welcome ports. Well running ports, obviously.

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However, it seems like the developer Larian Studios are working on a Native Linux version specifically for the Steam Deck, which you can see in the depots on SteamDB with a Native Linux version set for Steam Deck only (if a depot is set for Steam Deck it's not available on Desktop Linux).

I guess there's a workaround for this restriction, for the time the native version is ready?

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"Cease And Desist" in 3-2-1…

Well, it does make sense here, doesn't it?

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If Proton is already so much better, why does Steam not reflect that in its auto-selection of compatibility tools? The average person doesn't care about Native Linux vs Proton or about age of games, they just want to play games. And if Linux experience is worse than Windows because of a broken Native port, they'll be quick to blame Linux for this fault

Auto-selecting Proton is a thing on Steam deck - for the games not running fine natively. The other thousands of ports are using the Linux binary instead of the .EXE and a translation layer. Of course.

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