Dave the Diver was fantastic and is perfect for the Deck.

Some other games I liked playing this year on the Deck:

Chained Echoes

Vampire Survivors

Eastward

Divinity Original Sin 2

Slay the spire

Balatro

Chrono Trigger

Stardew Valley

Inscryption (mouse and keyboard required)

Edit: I got them all below or around $10, but some of them are curently above.

Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning $9.99

I had the most fun with Vampire Survivors - addictive, relatively short bursts, but suitable for longer sessions. Dirt cheap.

I also liked MultiVersus… before it became a micro-transaction filled abomination. The core gameplay loop is still great tho.

General recommendation: Pick single player games from 3-4 years ago and back. The ones you were really interested in when they came out, but did not yet get around to playing them. Due to their age, they are almost guaranteed to run well on Deck, and they provide hours upon hours of fun. That’s my strategy at least :)

both very elegant and gameplay-first, but also oldschool-cool:

chained echoes

it’s absolutely lovely on the steam deck because the readability and contrasts are good even in sunlit environment, and the battery life will be good

Balatro

Based on the games you listed, Morrowind! One of my absolute favorite old RPGs. Out of the elder scrolls games it’s the one with the strongest world building, which paints a nuanced picture of a very strange and compelling world. Compared to Skyrim in particular it’s more like a pen-and-paper rpg and less like an action game which gives it a higher barrier to entry. In particular, a lot of people find the combat frustrating at the start.

The modding community for the game is very active to this day. To begin with, there’s OpenMW which is a re-implementation of the engine that runs natively on Linux and contains various bug fixes and quality of life features. There’s also a fork of it, tes3mp, which allows you to play Morrowind in multiplayer!

There’s also Tamriel Rebuilt which is a modding project that adds the mainland of Morrowind (the base game just takes place on an island called Vvardenfell) and adds maybe another game worth of content. Theres also Project Tamriel which has one project that recreates Skyrim based on Morrowind-era lore and one that recreates Cyrodiil based on Morrowind-era lore.

Caves of Qud is really good, but I don’t know if it is fully compatible with the Steam Deck. Very good RPG though.

I would strongly recommend Disco Elysium, which is a very unique RPG with excellent writing.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/632470/Disco_Elysium__The_Final_Cut/

Cocoon

NieR:Automata and NieR:Replicant run great in the deck

Humble choice is a great way to discover gems https://www.humblebundle.com/membership

Monster hunter world and monster hunter rise run great on the deck

Cyberpunk also runs well enough on the deck

For the price sensitive gamer: https://isthereanydeal.com

Have you tried Deus Ex Randomizer? We have an unusually high number of Steam Deck players

https://mods4ever.com/project/DXRando

Hollow Knight has not been mentioned

Absolutely try Prey from 2017, it is an immersive sim that is now looked at as a modern cult-classic. You wont be disappointed.

Just wait for a sale if $30 is too high, it goes on sale regularly.

This fits your price requirement and is a nice chill game to just lose yourself in and perfect for the deck IMO.

A Short Hike. Currently €6.59 in Europe.

Hope things improve for you soon.