The “but not everyone can pay $500, think of the poor developers who just want their game on Steam” argument is stupid beyond measure. You’re arguing destroying the entire PC ecosystem just to avoid hurting the feelings and prospects of a few outliers. Steam is the biggest PC market ecosystem out there, having your game exposed there should not be a given, it should require a premium. That way we’ll not only filter the stream of **** on Steam, but would also facilitate the rise of smaller “poor-friendly” ecosystems that those developers could use as stepping stones toward Steam. Don’t have money to pay the Steam premium? Go to the SMALL_ONLINE_DISTRIBUTION_A and sell your game there until you make enough money to put it on Steam.
This will be bad for everyone involved less than five years down the line. And all that just so some poor little underdog developers can release their infinite runner on Steam where it’ll promptly be burred by a stream of unfiltered BS.