I really don't get why people complain about the pricing of the games in that they somehow make it Steam's fault that the games can be expensive. It's just a publishing platform that takes 30% from the selling price. But it's the publishers that set the prices. Sure, paying 59,90 euros for a digital download is a high price but it's really not up to Steam to decide.
And even if they sell games that are older and more likely to not run on your system, it's really not their responsibility to make them work. It's those guys' responsibility who put them there. And you can always go to GOG.com if you want to get (in most cases anyway) a working game from 1998.
Also, during my time as a game artist, our studio has had some weird complaints from the people who buy our games and then don't get them to work. The amount of cases where people have relatively old rigs or use laptops from 5 years ago and then go batshit crazy when the games don't work is surprisingly huge. I don't know why this is, other than the complete lack of taking responsibility in your own purchasing actions. The system requirements are stated in the store page and they know that their rigs can't handle the games and yet they buy them and then complain, saying it is our fault the game doesn't run on rig that has a GPU with 1/4 of the RAM and two cores missing from the minimum processor required to play the game.
Sure, Steam's demand on being "always online" can be tough for some but I have practically never had any problems with it. And to those who are seeking refunds of games "they didn't like after all", well, tough luck. Look for reviews first, then buy the games. I have around 200 games on Steam at the moment and most definitely there are games that have turned out to be awful or boring. But I can't blame Steam for those purchases. I was aware of my actions when I bought them and take full responsibility of the purchases.
Used games, then... Long before Steam service began, games already had CD keys that prohibited (or at least tried to) the lending of games. I remember having Neverwinter Nights back in the beginning of 2000's and it had CD keys. And so did many other games. The "problem" was, those were easy to crack and then distribute to your friends and whatnot. So, basically DRM, one form or another, has been there for a long time.
Downloading games can be a problem due to network speeds and connection problems. I have experienced only few cases of network issues that have made it impossible to play a game and those instances have been, surprise, when I was playing a multiplayer game. I suppose I am lucky to live in Finland where the infrastructure is one of the best in the world and I can enjoy downloading speeds on Steam that go up to 10 MBs/second.
Lastly, games are a commodity, not a necessity. If you dislike the service, you can choose to not use it. GOG.com is a good alternative, maybe Green Man Gaming too with their "re-sold" game activation codes/SecuROM DRM. But hate Steam for the proper reasons, not something like "the games are too expensive" or "my internet connection is bad".
Personally, I prefer Steam over any other service (although I am a customer on GOG.com, too). I suppose I am "a fanboy" and I don't deny it nor do I deny that some people around the world have problems with Steam. Some of the problems just aren't due to Steam but because some other "3rd party problem".
