All I had to do was show them Bazzite on my Loki Max. They all complain about windows on handheld constantly so it wasn't a tough sell. All of them also had steam deck at some point.
I work at an IT helpdesk so everyone here is tech savvy enough to understand the benefits of Linux on a handheld. Especially a distro geared towards gaming.
It was exactly this. A few of us still have our steam decks in addition to new handhelds and several still have just the steam deck. The unified experience makes testing and comparing performance much easier.
i always thought reactions were mixed on this, and maybe they are still. always hear about users complaining about games not working or how non-steam games aren't as seamless\