If you'd read the article, Valve says they're working with anticheat devs to come up with a solution together. This can only happen with their cooperation, if Valve somehow could bypass it on their own that would represent a vulnerability that should and would get patched.
TBH, I kinda get the feeling that's what most of the hype surrounding the Machine is. People hoping it sells well, but not necessarily people planning to buy one for themselves.
If devs want to support one, it'll be no problem to support the other. But I doubt devs who already refused to support one will suddenly change their minds.
I wouldn't expect the Machine to be any more popular than the Deck, which already wasn't enough to convince holdouts. In fact I would bet the Machine will sell much less than the Deck, since that had a more unique niche carved out for it.
As someone who played later entries first and then went back to SotN, IMO it's a bit rough around the edges in comparison. Still a fantastic game, but I think later games managed to improve on it.
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. IMO this is where the series peaked, perfected the formula and delivered a game packed with several large maps and three sets of bonus characters to replay the game with.
The memestock thing started because people realized they could try to make a quick buck by betting against those who were shorting the stock. But the stock was being heavily shorted for a reason, GameStop is a dying business, one that likely would've gone bankrupt by now if the apes hadn't rushed to prop it up. Anyone who didn't cash out at the peak, anyone who seriously believes GameStop has a long-term future, is a sucker.
Console manufacturers sell at a loss because they need to sell the console first before they can sell anything else. They can expect to make that money back on software the user could not have bought without the console.
Valve doesn't need people to buy Steam Machines to get them to start using Steam. In fact, I suspect most units sold will be to users who are already invested in the ecosystem. Selling at a loss would just be a straight loss to them.
Two years ago, one of my favorite games made some very minor cosmetic tweaks, and that was enough to attract a horde of post-Gamergaters crying that this is the downfall of western civilization. Two years later, the board for that game is still under seige by trolls that have rendered it unusable for anyone who actually wants to talk about the game. Every now and then a Valve mod will lock one thread, and then the trolls just make another and it continues.
My impression of the original Steam Controller was that it was designed for games I don't want to play on controller, at the expense of being terrible for games I do want to play on controller.