Well at this time I only have The Sims 2 and it's boatload of expansion packs installed. But I'll say them.
Do you know that The Sims 2 uses the filthy stuff you are talking about, right? Securom is a Ring 0 driver, to be exact, a layer which actually wasn't intended for such uses. So while you can turn off Steam, you can't turn off Securom. Guess what's filthy between the two?
Sadly, it seems the Sony rootkit representative was right after all: if people don't even know there is a problem, they will not care.