Valve created a fantastic entertainment product that people voluntarily choose to use. Why would you want to turn something people already love into something completely different? Counterproductive - especially when direct distribution is essentially free and universally accessible.
At this point steam is plain rent, coasting on their monopolistic platform power not any particular technical merit. It would be fine if valve spent this money on their userbase, but they don’t. All their other products are run for profit as well.
Stream created and maintains a platform that gamers and developers want to use but more importantly, they’ve built up a reputation that people believe in and trust.
Gamers and developers are so eager to use steam because in all the years they’ve been operating, they still support and expand upon family sharing, have a fantastic refund policy (for consumers), don’t employ aggressive exclusivity deals, don’t limit download speeds behind paywalls, and provide a great review and recommendation system.
They’ve become successful due to this reputation, why should we punish them for that?
They’re an http download website that takes a 30% cut on the hard work of artists.
That is already reprehensible, but not illegal.
They also dominate their market and their competition is laughable.
Now that is a properly punishable crime.
