[Orygin]

That's how it worked with the original controller, and how it works with the steam deck.

Like I said, it won't have all the modern features as it will be stuck on a MKB profile or a Xbox gamepad profile (or whatever you configure). But it will work

[reagcz]

I still use the original steam controller, and I can tell you this is not true. If steam is not launched, the controller runs in a keyboard/mouse emulation mode and is not detected as a controller. This behavior is hardcoded in the firmware and cannot be changed.

[Orygin]

It's not hardcoded, you can configure the default profile for when Steam is not running, and you can set it up as a gamepad