The Steam Deck already showed that people dont care so much about raw performance. Everyone did the exact same thing as now, calling it underpowered. Granted it was a handheld, so it sold on that merit. Just like the Steam Machine will sell on it's own merits.

It's a perfectly powerful machine, the price is unfortunate given the market state. There's not much reason we need that much more power, except that today's big games are made like absolute shit and barely perform, but hey, we can just not play those shitty games.

If you cannot justify, you dont have to buy it. Everyone else can make their own decision.