I personally like wood exterior or utilitarian sheet metal with no lights.

I would absolutely fuck with a beige/Earth tone box.

Throw it in a G4 Cube case and we can talk.

I think the faceplates will be swappable so I can get that custom gabecube look.

It's likely the steam machine will be repairable, what makes you think otherwise?

Not everyone loves to build a computer, look for compatible parts, compare 100 prices, choose a distro, spend 2 or 3 days troubleshooting unexpected things anyhow... The appeal of this box for people who want a "decent" hardware with steam/Linux on an open machine (free to install whatever you want afterwards) plug and play ready out of the box looks pretty damn big too me, if the price will be low enough. Not everyone is a tinkerer to the same degree or has enough time for it. This will for sure open Linux to a broader audience, that are interested but scared or short on skill/knowledge/time. Plus you get support, the real kind, not only random people on forums. Maybe it's not for you, but to me the appeal is enormous. If it's priced sharp enough I'll probably get one and make it my "smart" TV device.

If the price point is around 500$/€ I think it would be challenging to build a good pc for less than that

Not trying to attack you or anything because you did say that you don't see the appeal for your own case, but that's because this product isn't for you. If you see building a PC and putting it in your living room as an alternative, it's not meant for you. This is for everyone else who doesn't see those things as easy. Being someone who has been building/upgrading my own gaming PCs since I was a preteen, I understand how simple it seems to you. But not everyone has that perspective. What seems like simple step-by-step instructions to you is actually really complicated. Part compatiblity alone is difficult, and even the best sources of info can get it wrong, and that's really demoralizing for someone who doesn't even know what RAM is. Step-by-step guides seem easy, but there are many predatory ones out there, which suggest using a free trial of paid software to do the things FOSS software can do. You and I know how to avoid it, but if someone doesn't even understand the concept of an .iso file, how would they know that better alternatives exist? Also, an extremely common case when following tutorials online is that they are out of date, or an unexpected error happens when following them. You and I can quickly RCA these issues and get back on track, but when you don't even understand what the steps you are taking are actually doing, these minor hiccups leave you dead in the water.

What you are actually suggesting here is people do like, a year of introductory computer classes. It doesn't feel like that to you because you've been figuring all this crap out as you go along, but having walked people through the most basic of IT problems, you are overestimating what a normal person finds intimidating when dealing with a computer.

you can play on plutonium or something. It has it fixed

Probably not that severe, but I wouldn't bite the bullet. I think running malware, or in this case, RCE exploits, should be given more testing under Linux Wine/Proton. Also depends on how permissive your system is, I think (i.e. SELinux vs normal kernel, file permissions etc.)

Obviously. But apparently not only a me thing.

Graphics don't matter if the game isn't fun.

I guess it comes from a point where Linux gamers have been neglected by major studios for so long and now that there are enough other options they don’t have any power on them.

The joke is just "Call of Duty and Fortnite are shit / overrated" which you can disagree with

I also notice I hate when something I love becomes too popular, precisely because it loses its initial associations with the group I was happy to associate with, and becomes associated with a larger group that I don't feel connection with (or worse, becomes associated with a toxic fan base I actively don't want to be associated with - e.g. Rick and Morty, I love the show but developed shame for enjoying it, once it became popular and its biggest fans created negative associations with liking the show; you can tell yourself to ignore the shame, but I admittedly no longer identify as a fan of Rick and Morty because of what it will communicate to people about me).