Steam got a very negative reception by many
Part of that may have been people's irritation at not being able to play Halflife2 'out of the box' when it was released - but having to go through steam. I know I was thoroughly pissed at the delay, but now that I've moved to broadband, my irritation has subsided somewhat.
The other thing is I think I read somewhere that they have 13 million subscribers. Now that I have a game I'd like to see make a few sales, distribution on Steam would be fantastic.