  We have created an up-to-date catalogue of 214 brown dwarfs (BDs) in binaries
with $P < 10^4$ d. This allows us to examine the population statistics of the
brown dwarf desert. We searched $\textit{Gaia}$ DR3 NSS results for orbital
inclinations of BD candidates, deriving 12 new masses. Three remain as desert
BDs whereas nine candidates are found to be low-mass stars. We improved the RV
solutions for three previously studied BD candidates. A further 19 BD masses
with periods less than $\sim$ 1200 d were identified in the DR3
$\texttt{binary_masses}$ database. We confirm a valley in the mass distribution
with a minimum around 30-35 M$_{\textrm{jup}}$, and find that periods $<$ 100 d
are still under-populated in comparison to longer periods. The updated mass and
eccentricity distribution of BDs still shows a marginally statistically
significant split into high- and low-mass BD populations. This hints at two
different parent distributions, and two potential origins $-$ either akin to
planetary formation, or stellar. There are no low eccentricity BDs at periods
around 100 d. The mass-metallicity distribution of BDs indicates that core
accretion is not the dominant formation mechanism for BDs as they do not follow
the same trends that giant exoplanets do with metallicity. We identify a
diagonal envelope bounding the Gaia BDs in the mass-period plane due to the
detection thresholds of the currently available NSS solutions from 34 months of
data.
