Yes and no. When I got my OLED is was so light but after a JSAUX modcase, it sort of lost that feeling. That said, I’m all for protecting my devices and I have a toddler, so that’s me.
When I purchased the original Deck, I had it sitting on my desk in my garage with some headphones plugged in and my dog, who was under the desk, got up and bumped the cable with her head. The cable startled her, causing her to panic and jolt, catching the cable around her torso, and yanking the Steam deck off the desk. Dog is now in a panic as the flying Steam Deck crashes into the cement floor behind her, bouncing and skittering across the ground about 6ft or so until it came to a rest. Now, all of this happened in llike 2 seconds, so there wasn’t much I could do. It was basically new out of the box, but it took that incident without issue. That was a a few scrapes along the back/side, but no damage to anything else. Has run fine since.
All that to say that it’s tanky in its own right, but your mileage may vary. I lucked out I think, but even a case won’t save the screen from an ill placed drop onto a rock or something like that.
These aren’t full metal buttons. They’re a hybrid resin and aluminum or copper mix. So less of an issue if it was a full metal button. You can customize it through polishing it desired, e.g., a brushed look, fully polished, raw (as it comes packaged). And yes, your finger oils will add to the end result as well.