I’ve tried both and I liked Emudeck better for my use.
I tweak a lot of settings and like the granularity of Emudeck. Installing everything “separately” allows me to configure everything to my liking and keep those settings intact between updates. It also lets me choose versions of specific emulators and, at least when I checked, I was able to get newer versions of emulators with Emudeck vs Retrodeck.
Retrodeck is much cleaner. It’s one install, one uninstall. To get Emudeck off of my device entirely, at least early in the development cycle, it almost felt like I had to start from scratch again (although I don’t believe that’s the case any longer).
That said, still worth it for the more granular setup.
Someone else said they like Retrodeck because they like all their roms in the same launcher - I don’t know if I’m misunderstanding, but that’s how I use Emudeck. I don’t have anything in Steam past Emulation Station, and I launch all of my roms from that launcher.
Both are great options, though, just depends on your goals.
Nothing too special - I install nearly every emulator installed by default in the Emudeck experience - nothing is standalone in Steam, I’ve got everything in EmulationStation, and that launches the roms either in Retroarch or standalone, if I deem standalone to be superior.
All of my saves and my Switch (Ryujinx) user data are synchronized between my Steam Deck and a few computers in my house so I can pick up and play/continue from where I left off on another computer.
My main departure from default is that I use Ryujinx instead of Yuzu. Yuzu works better for a lot of games, but the way that DLC and updates are set up can be kind of annoying. It also recognizes games more quickly than Yuzu, which sometimes needs an update. Because of this, I like to be on the cutting edge of updates, and sometimes you have to wait with Retrodeck (unless they’ve changed something).