It seems it will be easier to be Steam Machine Verified when compared with Steam Deck Verified, according to a Valve designer speaking with Game Developer.

They spoke with designer Lawrence Yang who said there will be "fewer constraints" noting that if you're already Steam Deck Verified it will be Steam Machine Verified. That was pretty much obvious though don't you think? Valve already do something similar with SteamOS Compatible ratings, they just stick it straight on for other SteamOS machines if a game is Steam Deck Verified.

My hope is the text sizing will once again come into focus for game developers. It's often a big problem on the Steam Deck's smaller screen and resolution, with so many developers only seemingly testing their games on rather big monitors. In some games, the text is even too small on my own big monitor. Now think about this issue when you're sitting across the living room on your nice sofa, this could be quite the pain point with lots of games having no text scaling options. You're going to need some binoculars at the ready.