Yeah I typically travel with it using
the $10 Killswitch clone you can get on aliexpress (although as shown in that link it's more on Amazon). It's worked great for me and is way, way smaller than using the case. The case is very good quality and much better drop protection though.
I'm not sure what indies you were playing on the Switch OLED... It seems like the library would be much more limited and the games that are available (i.e. the Dead Cells, Hades, Hollow Knight level of indies which are obviously the more popular type) more expensive. The OLED is a nice screen and should be available on the next version of the Deck, for sure, though.