Yeah, the capacitive touch screen feels really tetchy and imprecise. Frustrating to use, even for simple card games with large touch targets (ex. Dicey Dungeons).

But I've found the dual thumb pads to be surprisingly good for mouse input. And with the inbuilt controller mapping software (WASD etc), I don't even need mouse all that much. I've been playing a little bit of Guild Wars 2, which doesn't even support controller input in the options. With a community-made control mapping provided in Steam, it works surprisingly well for casual adventuring (probably not for PvP).

My experience is similar. I’ve been playing through the original Deus Ex on my Steam Deck using the touch pads. Of course the game has no controller input and the input scheme is generally pretty dated, but it works well enough on the Steam Deck to be enjoyable.

Me too. It probably isn't precise enough for multiplayer FPS or RTS games but for single player experiences I've been pretty impressed.

You're surprised that the handheld console with controller inputs, only really works well for games designed for....controller inputs? I don't really know how you expected anything different? Obviously playing games designed for keyboard/mouse is gonna have to make compromises to work on a device with controller inputs, it's the same way when playing games designed for controllers on PC. You either plug in a controller or deal with the (usually slight) jankiness. Same goes in reverse for the Deck.

Where does the post you reply to express surprise?

It’s how they phrased ‘I’ve found’, as if they hadn’t expected it to be that way to start.

Obviously I and the above commenter expect that if you are interested enough to purchase the device, you probably should’ve thought of that to start.

I’ve somehow found Crusader Kings III bearable on my Steam Deck. Trigger buttons as zoom/scroll made a big difference, as did remembering I could use the touch screen whenever I wanted to.