Publishers would just pay the extra fee and pass the cost to us. They care about controlling the data than they do about actual sales. You know.. capitalism.

It's already up to the developer whether or not they use Steam's DRM. And fucktons of games from small devs already don't use it.

DRM, digital locks, hardware locking fuses etc. should be illegal. If I buy a car I can change the lights, swap out the engine, do whatever I want with it, it's mine, I own it. Why shouldn't I be able to do the same with my phone or game? Why should some company have the right to tell me what I can and can't do with my own property that I paid for? That's not DRM (digital rights management) because they have no right to manage my property, it's OSM (ownership subversion mechanism) and that's what we should call all that anti consumer bullshit.

Still waiting for the day Steam bites the bullet and just publish titles DRM free by default

They already do. Steam DRM is explicitly opt-in and the Steamdwork documentation even underlines that Steam DRM is a very weak form of DRM. Denuvo isn't by Valve/Steam and also opt-in.

Steam DRM can be bypassed without even modifying the game files (using open-source software no less), it is not the boogeyman people say it is. If the internet broke, or Steam was gone you could still easily play these games, and software like Goldberg would be well accepted by people.

What we need is an alternative store where opensource games can make money. That would change the business.

Valve's better than Epic Games, but they still have every incentive to keep users in their ecosystem with DRM. To that end, the Steam Deck's Proton compatibility layer and touchpad driver are integrated into Steam, rather than functioning independently of it.

Using the Steam Deck is possible without buying any games on Steam, but making Steam the core part of the distribution inherently encourages its usage.

Edit: I like the Steam Deck, but I don't think it's unreasonable to point out the aspects of the platform designed to encourage the use of Steam.