Potentially hot take: if a steam machine is made to compete with PS5 and Xbox, Valve needs to tighten “verified” status requirements and add appropriate graphics presets.

Console players for the most part enjoy not having to fiddle with settings. When they get a game and if it’s in the store, for the most part you can expect that game to run.

The steam deck, while it’s still more console-like, still has some quirks that come from its PC nature. Many verified games still require tweaks to become playable and updates break games more often on PC than on console.

I think that if a game is verified, there should be additional graphical settings like “Verified Performance” or “Verified Fidelity” that mirror the console versions of performance and fidelity. This would not replace all the settings but just make it easier for people who don’t want to tinker. Think the steam deck preset on Cyberpunk where you can still edit the settings yourself.