They're not. The Deck is hundreds of dollars more expensive than the Switch 2. The Switch 1 sold 155 million units, making it the second most popular console of all time. Switch 2 is also selling very well.

I don't think by "better" they meant financially. It sounds like they own both consoles and are surprised to replace their Switch use with a Deck.

Which tracks, to my wit; my Switch 1 is a buyers remorse product. If I knew that a Linux x86 handheld was eventually getting made, I'd have never bought it.

The Steam Deck is an ok PC gaming machine, but most PC games aren't optimized for console experience. There's even quite a few Windows games that don't work or have bugs on the Deck. Meanwhile all Switch games are made for that platform and there are a ton of exclusives you can't get on PC. Glad each one has a niche, but Switch is an order of magnitude (or two) more successful than the Steam Deck.

Sounds like you never tried the deck and the switch. So many games are unplayable on the switch besides nintendo official games. I dropped split fiction because it ran so horribly on the switch

Switch 2 is faster, lighter and cheaper than Steam Deck.

Tried playing split fiction on the switch 2 and it was so horrible I haven’t played anything since then. I’m picking it up again today for starfox but basically only use it for nintendo games.