I do think it’s about time for a successor. But that didn’t mean the current Steam deck isn’t viable any more. There are still thousands of games it will happily play. And the others can probably be made to run with some TLC from the developers.
That’s not how I remember the story but I haven’t read it in a long time. Time for a re-read. Cordwainer Smith is one of my favourite sci-fi authors of all time though, and yes his views will definitely grate with a lot of people these days.