It's as if you didn't read what I wrote.

You can say it's self-serving (steamdeck) and you would likely be right.

Doesn't matter whose benefit it was for. It's here now. I can use proton without Steam if I want to. If Valve goes full satan tomorrow, they still enabled viable PC gaming platforms where before there were none, and someone else can take the source and run with it.

Lots of us refused to run Windows just for games even before the MS store. We made do with what we could get. Now we (mostly) don't have to. Plus, people who were staying with Win solely due to gaming have a better chance of being able to ditch MS. Given where MS is headed in recent years, that's a win for personal freedom.

don’t kid yourself and think

You are arguing with a point I haven't made.