I wouldn’t call current consoles “enticingly cheap”, but I see where you’re coming from and I agree with the stance that there’s essentially two (three if you want to include cloud and/or subscription-based) models with fairly different standards.
The PC ecosystem isn’t as resistant as we’d like to think imo, with its over-reliance on Steam vs other storefronts (but that’s kind of a moot point if you take into account piracy I guess).

Yep, if that hypothetical gamer doesn’t care about the “latest and greatest”, then they might be better served by a lower spec’d PC.

I’m simply pointing out that your statement might not be absolutely true. Whether or not it makes sense financially speaking is not as cookie-cutter as it tends to be presented. If you aren’t interested in multiplayer, you have access to either libraries and/or a fair used market, consoles certainly can be financially better than PCs, even Steam Deck.

There are many other reasons why consoles don’t make sense - lacklustre modding scene, censorship, content delisting and “ownership” - but imo it’s hard to argue against how cheap they can be compared to a PC.
Piracy is certainly an option, but then why even bring up pricing in the first place, unless any and every game suddenly becomes free on PC?

If you have access to a local library with video games on offer, then you could very well play more popular physical releases for much cheaper on consoles.
Re emulation, Xbox Series consoles do wonders in dev mode (granted, that’s not official, but it works very well).

The latter is likely to be true for many imo, meaning it will never really “pop”.
I don’t think we’ll see affordable PC HW again, except for really lower end hardware which wouldn’t have any business use otherwise.
I hope I’m wrong, but it feels like the end of the consumer market.

I don’t need any of those, but thanks for doing this! That reminds me, I’ve got a number of duplicates I should try and give away as well.

All other things being equal (same game, settings and refresh rate / fps limit), the OLED and LCD models have comparable power draw.
If anything, the OLED max power draw at 15W TDP is lower, usually around 23W max versus 26/27W for the LCD iirc.

RX 9060 XT LP, but it’s not your usual LP in the “Low Profile” sense of the acronym (because why keep it somewhat consistent…). That’s a shame, it would have been perfect for SFF builds.

How was E33 on the Deck? I didn’t play much of it there, I was afraid parries and dodges would be a bit of a nightmare to time perfectly.

I’ve had very little luck with playing games in French lately, recent dubs I’ve tried all sound like poorly acted téléfilms imo…
That’s a shame, because both Plague Tale games, as well as E33 might (could) sound much better in French, but I can’t get past the way VA is done when compared to their English counterpart.

I care about HDR (on Linux) way less than I do VRR in general.
Is that the “sketchy” firmware you’re referring to?

I have one of these, but I don’t believe they work with HDMI 2.1 VRR (or at least I’ve never been able to get it to work).
With a LG B9, I have both G-Sync and HDMI 2.1 VRR support, but no FreeSync. I can get most of the HDMI 2.1 feature set working with a DP->HDMI 2.1 adapter, except for any form of VRR. That’s with a RX 9070, but similar situation on a 6800 XT previously.

Which is a bummer imo, since I don’t think people already considering a lower midrange PC today are the target demographic, but I would love to be proven wrong.

May I suggest buying it on GOG instead if you care about DRM-free?

Some Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon every now and then. It’s a very vanilla FE, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless.

Otherwise I’m having a lot of fun with Dragon’s Dogma 2. I never played the first, so I likely overlook many of the issues people have with the game.

I could be slightly misremembering the exact context during which I watched Grave of the Fireflies but I’m 95% sure it was a school outing and either in primary school or junior high 20 or so years ago.
Needless to say it was absolutely gut wrenching, but also extremely memorable.

Sure, and that makes financial sense, but that’s only one specific subset of games.
Smaller productions/games still have ways to turn a profit with smaller intended audiences and can in turn offer more complex storylines.

That’s a good point and, for lack of studies about it, it’s impossible to tell which is the most pervasive.

As a counterpoint, and this might be an “unpopular opinion”™: not all games are (should be) made for as broad an audience as possible and different attention (investment) levels should be expected depending on the game. That obviously won’t resonate with the business side of the gaming industry, but I think everyone needs to be aware of how much time they can dedicate to their hobbies and pick them accordingly.
I’m thankfully not in a position where I have to work 60hrs a week and I’m childless as well, but some weeks might leave me with less free time than others and I pick entertainment/media accordingly. That might not be what others do and I know my experience is likely purely anecdotal, but if I feel I don’t have enough time to properly enjoy a game or remember its premises as I play, I’ll simply do something else, even if gaming is my favourite hobby.

And to be clear, I fully agree that society needs to change dramatically either way. Everyone would benefit from better work-life balance.

Glad you were able to get it working!
I need to get around to creating a bug report, I’m guessing the issue is with gamescope and not Heroic itself, but I’m not sure.

Ah, good catch. In that case, I’ve hit this bug before, although usually when trying to select a different version of Proton afterwards, and I managed to get the drop-down working in Desktop mode.
If OP is already in Desktop mode, then I’m not sure tbh.

What happens when you click on the drop-down menu to select the version? I’ve had issues in the past with Heroic where the drop-down menus would only work in desktop mode on the Steam Deck, FWIW.