Alternative consoles?

I've been looking into getting a steam deck and have seen that it and the ROG Ally are the commonly recommended platforms. Since I'm looking to mostly pirate and emulate games from different consoles (from pokemon to sims to baldurs gate, whatever I can get my hands on 😂), are there other cost effective alternatives that would run just as well? I got the idea from browsing aliexpress when I realised they make tons of knockoff gaming consoles that look like the steam deck, but I don't have the technical knowledge to choose one that could be even remotely reliable. Any one have any experience? 🙏

Edit: just bought the steam deck OLED, waiting for it to ship, super excited!

Edit 2: just woke up to an email from valve that they've cancelled and refunded my order with no explanation as to why. Completely bummed as I'd hyped myself up for it so much at this stage :(