What you find acceptable is entirely based on your personal preference, how much you’ve already been exposed to higher specs, and how privileged you are in hardware, so some people are memeing and others are serious based on these.
If console and mid-range pc gaming is all you know, the Steam Deck provides similar performance, and it’s a full on pc (with all the customization potential and non-gaming software availability you’d expect from a pc) in a handheld form factor, and a fairly console-like stock OS, if that’s appealing to you.
But if you want 120-240 fps on latest AAA games, no, you won’t find the Steam Deck’s performance acceptable, but then also you wouldn’t be the target audience.
What you find acceptable is entirely based on your personal preference, how much you’ve already been exposed to higher specs, and how privileged you are in hardware, so some people are memeing and others are serious based on these. If console and mid-range pc gaming is all you know, the Steam Deck provides similar performance, and it’s a full on pc (with all the customization potential and non-gaming software availability you’d expect from a pc) in a handheld form factor, and a fairly console-like stock OS, if that’s appealing to you. But if you want 120-240 fps on latest AAA games, no, you won’t find the Steam Deck’s performance acceptable, but then also you wouldn’t be the target audience.