Which is why I would be comparing the steam machine with Beelink and Minisforum. Can I get a reasonable uplift in performance at an affordable price? Yes, at this point the decision to relace my 970 is made, and I'm looking at what to replace it with. Valve, Beelink, minisforum, geekom...
I'm too lazy to research, design, collect parts, and build my own pc. So a Mini PC home console replacement is absolutely where I'm going. I'll give valve some premium chops too. Although I run a couple Beelink minis as a home server, I trust valve to have better lifetime and 3rd party support over [insert generic Mini builder here]. Mostly the research if I'm honest. If someone gave me a pcpartpicker list beating the UM780 XTX in price and performance I'd probable do that, I'm just lazy.
I think I'm going to buy a PS3/XB360 era emulation capable mini (easily doable for sub $700 according to RetroGameCorps mini pc spreadsheet), I would like it to be Valve, I'm ok with it not being.