But the Steam Machine is also likely to be positioned as a console competitor on some level, just like the Steam Deck - sure the Deck is just a PC in a handheld form factor, but it’s designed to be a handheld console.

“Those who care about the freedom PC gaming affords” surely aren’t in the market for a pre-built machine whose main attractiveness will be convenience and support, either. I play PC games because it’s what I grew up playing, where I’m most comfortable, and it gives me better access to a wide variety of games at good prices than console games do. I can play in higher fidelity than an equivalent-generation console, and I can play games which are poorly suited to controllers (ironically: like Call of Duty. Which I haven’t played since Black Ops 4, but I have played other games with restrictive anti-cheat) For me, it’s not about some abstract concept of freedom at all. I also use Linux for everything except gaming for concrete reasons.

Saying the Steam Machine sucks because of this is idiotic. But saying it will limit its reach, or is a reason to not buy it, or whatever, is totally legit. My PC plays as broad a gamut of games as possible, and while I’ll look into it, I’ll take a lot of convincing to potentially have to put up with the Linux desktop issues I put up with routinely on my main (non-gaming) computer. Not being able to play my friends’ flavour of the month would be a big red flag.