Sure but:

Importantly, that also means it’s going to remain a capable gaming device for at least four more years.

… this is such a typical silly blanket statement. If I look at my Steam deck review of the year, there’s a low digit percentage of “new games” and a much much higher majority of older titles. Some going back more than a decade. And there’s tons of games of that time that I haven’t played yet.

And the new games I play are not the high-end 3D VR type of online shooters that’d require top notch hardware. Maybe I am an outlier but reading around communities here, maybe not.

the 64gb model was the scavenger’s special. If you had friends at the e-junkyard and were locked in on getting any deck it was a no brainer

I mean, LCD Steam Deck also supported up to WiFi 5, and modems are mostly (no, not the meme) 6 and 7 now.

Probably a combination of factors, honestly.

Very compelling argument. Definitely seems like the most-likely explanation for me. Could definitely still be a supply-side issue, though. We don’t really KNOW anything about what Valve’s supply chains look like.