Because form and function is not the same thing. I don’t look at the controller while playing just like I dont give a damn how my keyboard look as long as it feels good and does what it is supposed to do.

What controller from the 1980s looked anything like the Steam Controller?

I mean, the Sega Genesis controller was mostly black and had face buttons and a D-pad and was around in the late 1980s, but that’s about as close as I can think of, and that’a not much by way of similarity.