At the end they wanted to clear storage space.

I think they could make a great controller. The problem with the steam controller was that they were too stubborn about the touch pads.

I'm glad they learned. You can see that on the Valve Index. The first prototype controllers they publicly showed were with big TouchPads and no thumb sticks. Awful. They kept the little touchpads but honestly full sized thumbsticks would have been better.

The steam deck showed a continuation of the process with the touchpads topic.

I think valve is now ready for a proper controller. They are not stubborn about touchpads anymore.