The Steam app itself is also pretty great. I didn't fully appreciate that until the Epic Games Store, which runs about as well as a sloppy Javascript app from ten years ago. It's been in the same dire state for years.
Meanwhile Steam is pretty quick, the interface is well organized, and there are tons of useful features from controller configuration to the mod workshops.
I definitely agree that there's an alternate Steam-less timeline where major game publishers migrate entirely to consoles, as they were threatening to do in the mid-2000s. We'd never have all these PC ports from Japanese developers (from Dark Souls to Persona 5) without Steam.
Meanwhile Steam is pretty quick, the interface is well organized, and there are tons of useful features from controller configuration to the mod workshops.
I definitely agree that there's an alternate Steam-less timeline where major game publishers migrate entirely to consoles, as they were threatening to do in the mid-2000s. We'd never have all these PC ports from Japanese developers (from Dark Souls to Persona 5) without Steam.