Valid criticisms sure, but really...I don't think that games are the focal point of this problem. Relentlessly re-enforcing customer loyalty? How about Apple? How about for videos, where I sign into Netflix, Hulu and Youtube, and have the option to buy things from Amazon, Apple, Android and who knows what else? Games seem like such a serious offender because the average gamer is going to be getting products for multiple platforms, and multiple developers.
The majority of this complaint seems to be mainly because of healthy competition. Every once in a while you hear a conversation where people are terrified by the possibility of Steam monopolizing digital distribution, or one of the consoles becoming the only console out there, and that stifling the need for innovation. Well if you want competition, and you want the kind of bare minimum of anti-stealing mechanisms in place that don't inconvenience the consumer but make it physically possible for a business to function (Things like a CD code, a disc check, or other mechanisms where a person who wants to pirate the game has to at least go someplace online and download something) there is going to be a lot of signing in in places.
Lastly, these techniques...work. Why does the local grocery store have a loyalty card that lets you access certain sales, even though the card itself is completely free? Well the card in your wallet makes you associate shopping with that store. Its a small pain, but it makes people a tad more loyal. And that kind of loyalty is very easy to do i n something like video games. The more digital other things become, the more you will see it there as well. Personally, my only real complaint is when the redundancy is actually inconvenient. I have no problem signing into Steam, but I shudder at the thought of GFWL because it has rendered games of mine unplayable for hours. With any luck, all those sign ins will slowly consolidate into a reasonable number.