Yep.

I was initially hopeful that this thing might be surprisingly affordable, due to... basicslly the theory/rumor is that the 'semi custom' apu was initially intended to be used in a planned but cancelled Windows tablet/Surface kind of thing...

But yeah, then, tariffs, rampocalypse, strait's closed due to raids = shipping costs go up bigly.

I'm pretty sure the way Valve does their internal finances is that that 30% cut of all games?

Sure some of it goes toward Steam server costs, but I think most of it just goes into a giant war chest fund, from which they 'experiment', with things like this.

Makes sense to me that they at least want to break even... business wise, that works if it makes more people use Steam and/or increases their reputation as actually innovating in some way.

But being a loss leader would simply be too dangerous, too risky. They are small fries compared to the major console/pc hw manufacturers, and I am very sure the last thing they would ever want to do is owe some outside actor a lot of money.

Wasn't willing to be a lost leader

It's literally a PC. IT departments all over the world would have absolutely no problem taking this hardware, and using it for their open office hell. Steam would get absolutely zero dollars. Steam needs the hardware to stand on its own