Yes, the Steam Deck is great, and Steam is definitely one of the best games platforms there is. And Valve has done great work supporting Linux and open source development, and forcing more transparency for sellers on Steam.
But I feel like people sometimes just love valve for everything they do. GabeN is still a billionaire, buying super-yachts and stuff. Valve makes a ton of their money from gambling on loot crates in CS2 and TF2, and have not done enough (imo) to stop even more predatory third party item gambling sites. And whenever I bring stuff like that up people keep defending Valve.
We should be able to praise their great games and hardware, at the same time as criticising other parts of the company.
I agree on most of what you say. But i dont own a pc, nor do i actually deal with steam at all. Im more of a devils advocate kind of asshole. And i have no idea how a platform that hosts others games is pushing gambling onto kids. If its by allowing microtransactions like everywhere else then you should also be mad at phone companies. My sister racked up over 2k worth because she would apply purchases to the phone bill instead. And its not like we were notified, that seems shittier then what i can imagine steam is doing. But i admit i dont know these gambling claims you refer too.