For those who wish to test out the very latest improvements to the Steam Deck, Valve has put up Steam Deck OS 3.5 into Preview now. In the official announcement Valve go over a big list of new features and fixes, so here's some of what's included.
I would switch to Linux in the desktop if SteamOS was polished for it.
Gaming and modding on Windows is already full of caveats, I'd only be willing to jump into that with Linux if there was a widely adopted and supported OS there to make sure the mod compatibility and UX was better.
It's said how this is now being called Steam Deck OS. It was originally Steam OS and a desktop OS but now it's Steam Deck OS and no desktop release is in sight. In fact, it seems like it's against Valve's supported path to put it on a desktop. Kind of a bummer that the desktop world won't get a well supported gaming desktop Linux distro for the foreseeable future.
I don't see your point. The fact is that they are rebranding it to Steam Deck OS. Clearly they are still calling it SteamOS in places but it's still not actually SteamOS. It's steam's OS for steam deck. Steam Deck OS. No longer is it an OS for desktops or laptops but instead handhelds.