Is it a good idea to buy a Steam Deck solely to play pirated games? Or should I get a windows-based handheld instead?

From what I know, most guides on piracy on steam deck involves running the game through Steam's launcher as a "Non-Steam Game" which kinda feels sketchy to me, since the Steam Launcher portion of SteamOS is not open source, and they could be phoning home to Steam's servers and reporting me as a pirate. Maybe they don't go hard on pirates for now, but at any point in the future, they could pull a Nintendo move.

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Consider:
On Linux, you'd only be fighting the Steam Launcher if things come to blows.
On Windows, you have to start fighting against the entire system, on day 1.
- Emphasis on if and have to

I wouldnt suggest windows purely from a performance standpoint. No matter what you buy you should use linux on it. Also windows isnt FOSS either so they could theoretically be doing the same thing.

Get a steam deck and either run games not through the steam launcher or just install another linux distro on it?
If you're concerned about SteamOS snitching because Valve I don't know why you'd consider Windows which has proven extensive telemetry.

Steam Deck easily. Everything you said you're worried about Valve possibly doing in the future goes double for Microsoft.
Steam Deck is a great platform for playing any games on, pirated included. I have my whole GBA ROM collection on my Deck and play them through RetroArch, works perfectly.

You don't really need to use the launcher. You could run it from the steam desktop if you liked.

Steam / Valve doesn't care if you pirate games as long as you don't involve their servers. This is a pretty known / accepted fact.
If you really are worried just install a different OS on steam deck and don't use steam at all.
I don't think I would personally really consider using windows for anything these days. Semi-ironic to be concerned about steamOS spyware when you are comparing to windows which for sure has spyware.

In my experience, windows is an awful UX for gaming but it is very easy to install and run unauthorized games. Steam deck requires a bit more heavy lifting and patience.
I ran windows on my deck for a year and switched back because the experience is terrible and nothing works quite right. I haven’t used the newer windows handhelds, but the upcoming ROG might fix some of the issues with booting into windows and doing constant updates

Use the Heroic Launcher. It uses the same proton as steam but doesn't launch through steam.

If your worry is that a corporation will report you for piracy, than you have a false dichotomy. Both SteamOS and especially modern Windows are both corpo controlled platforms. You'd be far better off running something like Bazzite off the handheld if the goal is to get away from closed-source systems. You also wouldn't have to run things through Steam to get non-steam games working, there's other options that would still allow you to use Proton as your compatibility layer.
- Bazzite uses the exact same package, for gamemode, that SteamOS does, on a handheld.
  
  just don't use gamemode? If anything, I imagine gamemode would be a detriment to running things outside of Steam, which is the use-case OP is looking for.
- Oh lol I didn't know there was an alternative OS compatible with steam deck. I thought that the only Linux OS out there were all for Laptop/Desktop PCs.
  TIL
  
  The steam deck is pretty much just a PC with a built in gamepad. You can put windows or any OS you want on it.
  
  SteamOS, which comes pre-installed on the Deck is Linux.
  You can even enter desktop mode and use it as a PC.

Sure, they could pull a Nintendo and do that; but then you've got a handheld running Linux. Linux that's trying to tell the user how they should use it/how they're not allowed to use it. And thus if they do it is guaranteed that there will be a dedicated, pissed-off Linux nerd somewhere who spends hours a day doing everything in their power to revert or circumvent whatever bullshit they pull.
In fact, if they did a "Nintendo move", a workaround would probably be integrated into Bazzite within days or weeks.

Ive used it for 1.5 years with absolutely no issue. I made a separate steam account just in case, but honestly even if i couldn't use steam I'd still never put windows on there. Id much rather keep linux on it and just run games with lutris like people who have linux gaming pcs do. Steam makes it super easy and convenient but it isnt necessary for linux gaming.

Steam deck

Go with the Steam Deck and keep Linux on it. There are so many great ways to run non-Steam stuff from Steam if you really want to use Steam. And if not, just switch to desktop mode, it's just regular KDE and you can run whatever you want however you want.

Given this hypothetical, I would rather Valve know I was a pirate than Microsoft.

Syeam deck is hardware. Afaik it's open.
Pick the hardware you like, install the distro you like.
Avoid nvidia intel windows.

Steam deck works very well for retrogaming and for running non-steam games. You can set up emulators rather easily.
It's an unlocked device (unlike a Nintendo), you run on it whatever OS you want. If they would pull such moves, community developed steam OS alternatives will arise. All that's needed to run non-steam games on the device is open source.

Running installers, specifically very customized scene ones or repacks with heavy compression have compatibility issues with wine and proton out of the box. You can get the clean steam files from a .zip or equivalent, or run the installer on your windows machine then copy the files over via Warpinator, FTP or an exfat USB with a USB A to C adapter. Then add the games to Steam from desktop mode and set the compatibility to Proton Experimental and most games should work. If you transfer the clean steam files (of a game that is not cracked, give it the same name on the Steam store) of a non-Steam game you added it will say 'Cannot verify license' or something along those lines, so Steam can detect games you custom added steamapi.dll, you can't verify the games files because it is not in your account so it cannot download the uncracked executable or steamapi.dll. I don't know if Valve is actively scanning your non-Steam library and uploading that data to determine information about you. If you want to 'de-steamify' a Steam Deck you'll still need a game launcher, there is opengamepadui, sc-controller for remapping and desktop layout. The biggest problem would be an on-screen keyboard. Maliit (a qt keyboard) is absolutely terrible compared to Steam's built in keyboard, and the dual trackpad typing does not work with anything else.
- I use repacks almost exclusively, and it's one major reason I haven't installed bazzite on my ally (that and game pass). It's just stupid easy to hit install and not worry about compatibility.

It’s a great idea.
It can’t phone home if you keep it offline when gaming.
- Just FYI: Devices totally can phone home even if they are offline. Modern spyware capitalism is basically malware. They can easily collect data, store it somewhere and send it to their server when you do go online sometimes in the future.

Personally I find pirated games to be a bit of a pain to install on the Deck. I'd go with Windows for that use case.
- It's dead easy under Bazzite using Lutris or Bottles. Maybe I should write up a guide and post it here at some point.

Gaben doesn't care, he just is happy you spent alot on his handheld

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