Do you happen to know a substantial amount of games, that got good sales, just by publishing on steam without marketing, some years ago? I’m just curios because I don’t remember ever buying a game from “suggestions” or “new releases”, normally I would hear about it somewhere else, or see it in “featured” section.
Most likely you still can “buy” a spot in “featured” from the steam, just as it was before with large publishers getting there.