

The original one is solid, but takes up a lot of space. Which is fine in a car boot or something, but may be a problem in a backpack.
Having said that, if you’re putting it in a bag where it won’t be rattling around, protecting the front is probably enough, so a half-case which covers the front will probably suffice.
They could sell them at a loss assuming the average Steam outlay per device exceeded the loss. This figure would be dragged down by people buying them as generic portable PCs, using them solely with emulators, using them as drone controllers (apparently the Ukrainian military do that), and such.