Yes, a Steam Deck is a viable alternative to a budget gaming PC. But if you would want to buy a dock and peripherals and keep it docked most of the time I’d say go with the PC.
For me personally, the biggest plus of a Steam Deck was that I didn’t have to get peripherals (because my living situation is a bit complicated at the moment). And they’re dirt cheap, got a used LCD512 GB one for 320€.
edit: I own a laptop too. If I didn’t, I would’ve gotten a new one
I usually only find like 2-3 interesting games out of 200, but the ones I did find were pretty sweet. Sometimes you’re not lucky and exclusively play trash.
I mainly enjoy 2 types of games, ones with replayabilty (Stellaris, Rimworld, Slay The Spire, Roguelites in General, some RPGs) and short to medium single player games which I usually only play once. If you don’t like the second category, my recommendation is definitely the wrong approach, yeah
Limit Internet usage and avoid games and other entertainment for a few days, then go on itch.io and just play whatever. Not because it looks cool, not because it’s popular. Just anything.