Not a SD user, but a desktop gamer who found your post. I wouldn't be surprised to see people on the fediverse say they often play games outside of Steam.
The non-techy people I know treat the thing like a console and refuse to use desktop mode for games. That's the catch of the Steam Deck. It runs Linux underneath, but most people never (want to) interact with it. I love it for what it does for Linux gaming but there's more to PC gaming than just Steam - Although I'm aware that Steam probably underprices these with hopes to recoup the loss back on Steam purchases.
(Also your method isn't really hacky, that's just kind of how binary executables work in Linux, plus the steps to add it to Steam)
I remember when compact was hidden - apparently this was a change driven by telemetry. It was possible that there's an overlap between those who use compact and those who turned off telemetry. I wouldn't be surprised if something similar also occurs with Pocket being left on too.
If compact breaks in a future update, it'll probably be removed altogether. At that point, best option would be userchrome customisation.
IIRC, this change was made ahead of the impending UI overhaul. This combined with the Windows 11 getting bigger touch-friendly UI elements understandably didn't sit well with many people.