> I love my deck, it's an incredible and capable device. But it was very clunky those first 2-3 years
I got the Steam Deck on release. It was a near solid device for me from the get go. Only had the occasional crash/reboot, but I wouldn't describe it as having been clunky.
I personally would call the UI pretty clunky. Trying to figure out which settings are on the right settings button menu vs the left is annoying. Plus, there's stuff like not being able to get the onscreen keyboard to come on screen, and streaming can be a headache.
I love it and use it a lot, but it's not a Nintendo Switch experience, at all.
Then it’s likely you either weren’t trying to use all the available features or are misremembering, because I promise you it was not smooth at launch. I got mine over a year in and these problems still existed. The gaming/desktop transition was a notorious issue, as was docking to a TV. Computer monitors it was (generally) fine.