The big thing for me is that the intersection of "has an existing Steam library" and "doesn't care about PC specs" is likely small. The price performance hardware-wise isn't very competitive in general (btw an Xbox Series X is $600 rn, not $800, author was probably looking at a bundle). Also, prebuilt gaming PCs still exist, and you can run Steam Big Picture Mode with a controller on any of them, and given an entry level Alienware is about the same price, I just don't really get what position this is trying to occupy in the market.
The other thing is that console gamers aren't going to have huge Steam libraries already... if you're coming from XBox or Playstation rn, Steam access doesn't help you. To someone who doesn't have a Steam account right now, this isn't really any different from having to make an Epic account, EA account, etc. and all you're saving is the Xbox Live fees (which amortize about the same over the lifetime of Xbox vs Steam Machine assuming you get the minimum and that the Steam Machine has roughly the same lifespan).
I'd be over the moon rn if this had launched at $700 like rumored, but if it's going to cost as much as a PC while underperforming a PC, I'm gonna have to pass.
