Yep, ask anyone who owns both. Nobody is playing a Gameboy game on a Steam Deck when they have an Analogue Pocket. Experience is much better, it just feels right on it.
That being said, if that’s not an important thing to you then a Steam Deck will play Gameboy games with near perfect accuracy and no issues, as well as do a million other things. So it’s indisputably a better value.
I would never pitch an Analogue Pocket at someone because if its the kind of thing you want, you already know about it and probably have one.
If your concern is “value for dollar” you wouldn’t be buying an FPGA console in a limited edition material. Seems like a weird comparison. You can also get an R36S for like, $30 on AliExpress that will play everything from N64/PS1 and earlier.
A standard Analogue Pocket is much cheaper, this is just an option for those that really want a metal shell. Also, a metal “unfolded” shell for a GBA SP (which is I’m sure is what inspired this offering) is like $150 so it’s not even that crazy a markup.