Despite not owning one, I really like the Steam Deck because I suspect it has made my transition to Linux far smoother (for a while, I dual booted because I was fearful that gaming on Linux would be difficult.)
You say it’s a horrible way to learn that this is a thing, but I actually find it weirdly sweet how when someone dies, people who care about the deceased or their work jump to share stories of how they had been impacted. It reminds me of birthdays; I have friends who I don’t speak to much, but their birthday prompts me to reach out and say “hey! I’m glad you exist”
I think you’ve excellently captured the difference here. I didn’t get heavily into Elite Dangerous, but on one of my longest journeys, I scanned a few things that no-one had ever scanned before. I didn’t discover any awesome looking space phenomena that would be worth sharing (at least, none that hadn’t been discovered before), but the prospect that I could was exciting.
Even just the idea that my name would be on other people’s screens if they came and scanned the same things I did, because we were all sharing the same world.