I was bored so I took a look as the 3D models for a steam deck and Framework’s official printable case for a mainboard and put them side by side:
They’re remarkably similar in size. Steam Deck of course is significantly thicker since it needs to have a battery and screen (not to mention the grips for controllers).
Makes you wonder if you could take old Framework mainboards and make rudimentary modular Steam Decks out of them. NRP is on record saying Framework isn’t interested in making a Steam Deck competitor, but that doesn’t mean the community couldn’t get creative. Could someone do something with framework’s innards, inputlabs’ controller parts, and a 7" waveshare touchscreen for raspberry pis or similar parts? Cooling would be a challenge but I assume not an insurmountable one. With the upcoming AMD mainboards, this could actually be a pretty capable device.