I recall telling everyone I knew "Dont buy Half Life if you need STEAM to run it. You are just screwing us all by giving in to this bullshit."
COH2 was the first Steam game I purchased. By then it was too late. The human race can never be saved. The feeling of missing out on something and not having all the cool new stuff is slowly eroding humanity into pavlovs dog.
You used to get a finished game on CD you could play anywhere you want with whomever you want. Now people are paying for shiny pants, boots, and dance moves in games even though it has nothing to do with game play at all. RIP Humanity. This ship of fools is going down.
Steam has mostly had a positive affect on PC gaming and digital distribution in general is far better than physical.
Steam is feeling a little old and clunky with a little too much bloat but hopefully with the continue updates the client should improve, and while valve do take what I think a too high % on revenue from developers they do offer quite a perks.