There’s also PikaOS. It’s using Debian mechanics (so apt as the package manager and such), but a modern kernel and their own repos. If you’re more used to this world, might be worth a look. 8 didn’t know how well it’ll handle the controller and specific button inputs from the deck though.

I personally also came from a mostly debian background, but ended up going with CachyOS for my desktop needs (my deck is still on steam os). It’s arch based, and just very polished and well thought out. It has a version specifically for mobile consoles, like the steam deck.

You still need base CPU speed for a system to be usable. Try running a modern GPU on a 10 year old CPU. It’s even worse for some, where the GPU driver needs a relatively fast CPU for the GPU to run at full speed. Mostly Intel GPUs have this issue, which is sad cause they are the most affordable, but can’t be paired with an just an affordable CPU (or an older one).

And we’re very far away with RISC-V from the kind of performance your need to run modern games, or even decade old games. Let alone fully utilizing a high end GPU.

Finally! I was waiting for a version of the original zimaboard with a modern/competitive processor. Such a versatile little device.