most concepts are brilliant in theory but fail in practice. Even when you change the way how to distribute your software you will always have people complaining. I do think that Valve really needs to consider this beta or non beta environment. Its insane to buy HL now, you will first need to get Steammed, then you need every wednesday a new patch, its a darn horror to get it working.
I don't use steam, ONLY if i HAVE TO
(testing bots), i only test bots in CS 1.6 when i have tested it 100 times with CS 1.5 though