I'm curious how old you are. I remember the days of when you had to travel to a brick-and-mortar store to purchase a physical copy of a game (if it was in stock). Then, you travel home, install it, and play it, saving your local saves on your computer, backing them up manually on an external drive so that you don't lose your progress in the event of a system failure. Oh, and writing your CD Keys in a notebook, and carrying that with you (along with your physical games) wherever you move. I don't remember how patches were managed, but I don't recall there ever being a 'day-one' patch of fixes, or being one message away from the developers.

Steam provides a lot of value.