Let's say hypothetically it IS $300-400. How does this affect the market in general?

If you think about it from the perspective of a parent, it's a lot cheaper than a PS5 or a Switch 2 so there's savings to be had. It's the kind of situation where I feel like you won't truly see the effects of it for a decade or so, as kids who grow up on this thing become teens/adults who then buy whatever followup console Valve makes to this. I don't think it would make too big of a splash now because most people who want consoles have consoles and a ~$50-100 change won't make the difference between buying one or not for most consumers. Then again, it might depend on the "big" games for the console, a parent buying a child a console for their birthday or Christmas would want to get them whatever the next big AAA game is that the kid wants, and if Steam doesn't have that then that could be an issue. I wonder if they released this at the opportune time, or if a few more years of getting huge games on PC would make a bigger difference.