I think it's a pretty good deal. As a dad who has limited amount of time to play, I've had an Xbox for 16 months and bought it with game pass.
In that time I've played > 50 games and played about 15 of them to the credits.
In that time I've not actually bought a game. At the new price of $20 is have paid $320 which is the cost of about 5 or 6 games, Maybe 10 or a 11 if I'd aimed for sales.
I know right. I get about an hour a day and was quite shocked as I just went back through my achievements to see how much I'd actually played in that time.
I mean console games are always more expensive. There's always something amusing about getting about 20 good games for five bucks on PC. Also epic games is still trying to bribe us with free games.
What drivers issues, don't consoles require just as many updates? I distinctly remember console update taking upwards of a half an hour to install like 300Mb. Refusing to update would log you out and disable digitally purchased games. It often killed the mood when I just wanted to play some games after work, the steam deck filled that spot nicely.
Besides I use Linux so my drivers are built in and updates are unintrusive and take no time to apply. I have it set to remind me once a month, I get a little icon in the taskbar and I apply them before shutting down. It takes like two minutes.
I'm not judging if you like console but modern consoles are just as annoying as any other internet appliances. They need updates, they need regular Internet access to work, they can't really do anything else, when it shits the bed your expected to throw it away get a new one, and often have tack on a monthly fee for basic features.
I need a computer so instead of splitting the cost between a computer that won't be too slow to do any real work and a $500 game console I just get a more powerful computer and justify the cost with the money I'm saving.
That does sound like a pretty good deal. The thing is, it used to be a fantastic deal. And judging by the way they are acquiring multi billion studios and IPs left and right it's clear as daylight that they want to monopolize the market and keep the subscription model for a long time, which means the deal will get ever worse. So yeah, this pricing change was definitely expected.