Comment by ux266478

It's a specific Windows issue too, and not unique to the steam controller. Xinput doesn't work with generic USB controllers, because you know, Microsoft. Hence why you need cope software for Sony controllers.

Valve does deserve criticism for the royal pain certain things are though. For example non-technical users will absolutely struggle to get Proton working without Steam, the process in doing so is purposefully kept undocumented and esoteric. There's 100% a little bit of undesirable obfuscation Valve does to push you towards just using Steam to run their OSS. It's definitely non-Free in the purist sense.