I'm sorry you had to wait, but the gamepad input on Linux/SteamOS should now be working the same way it does on Windows. Even the users of SteamDeck should not have to use Keyboard emulation (WASD) anymore.

• Re-wrote the gamepad input from scratch.

Windows already worked fine;
Linux/SteamOS users should be able to notice a gamepad icon in the lower-left corner when starting the game instead of keyboard icon, use the gamepad in the menus and the game, and also get gamepad-adjusted hints during the gameplay instead of kb-only ones, like this: