The company that gave up making games because there was more money to be had from inserting itself as a middleman into a previously open platform does not deserve any adoration.
Then don't buy it through steam. Just buy it through a third party like greenmangaming. Valve gets zero cut there.
The market demanded a middleman. Would you prefer an Epic or Microsoft monopoly?
They still make and support games :)
This is categorically untrue. In addition to the games listed below, they are actively developing "Deadlock" which is a pretty rad game in my opinion.