Valve won't be releasing a Steam Deck with more performance until at least 2025. Given the smartphone market's reputation for disappointing incremental updates, this is the right choice. Valve should, however, throw gamers a bone with a Steam Deck 1.5.
That argument that any SoC upgrade wouldn’t be noticeable right now is partially true. A better SoC can be fabricated, but that would offset any cost Valve would willing to accept given the current Steam Deck pricing.
It’s better to wait for what AMD creates. Surely they’re preparing new RDNA and ZEN architectures, plus TSMC new nodes. Those guys have an special sub-node to target low power devices, being the latest the one Apple eats every iPhone launch.
If they pushed a new Steam Deck, it would be marginally better and most folks wouldn’t be so compelled to upgrade. Also, you fragment your development team, now you have to maintain two devices.
Yeah, it’s better to wait a good timing when AMD and TSMC aligns, then you push forward and you offset the prior 4 year old model.