Hmm... Although no one jumped all over me for it, I still got a couple of responses to the paranoid thing. Perhaps I should be clear.
I have no loyalty to a company. Do a good job and I reward with my business. Slip and I leave. That's not to say I don't understand that minor slips happen, but there are limits to all things. I loved Blizzard games for some time and then right around the release of Warcraft III, I found myself walking away from them without looking back since. All this establishes is that I have no special connection to Stardock, Ironclad or any other company.
My father and brother both use Steam. My brother uses it for single player games and very few of them. He has had a good experience overall. My father uses it for multiplayer games and several of them. He has had mixed experiences, from Steam suddenly eating memory by the ton to the server screwing with him to long periods of happy functionality. I have CDs and the occasional digital copy of a game. I reload them whenever I choose, on any machine I choose, and often without any access to the internet. I do not play many multiplayer games and amongst those that I have, I have only casually done so. I do not gain anything from the use of Steam, in any regard. I have not used multiplayer in some time. I don't care about achievements. My stats mean nothing from day to day. Patching is not difficult. Modding is just as simple. Any problems that could arise from Steam are not worth the fact that I have not had any issues without it.
I am security conscious. This is where people will say I am going overboard, but the truth is that I do engage in online business and I do have files and potential data that I prefer not be released to the public at large. I do not expect that Steam will steal anything of mine. I know how data mining works and am not so foolish as to think more of it. I also understand that anytime I make a purchase, download, or any other interaction with the world, I am briefly open to input and output of data. However, I will only leave only so many windows. With my money, I have one bank that I operate my personal finances through. Another for my business finances. I plan for yet another for upcoming investments. I know that my money is in the hands of others and those hands can fail. If one were to be struck, the other two are not open to assault. This way I am protected from total loss. People recognize this truth. You keep track of your credit card purchases. You worry when a check doesn't clear or goes missing. You hug the ATM close so no one sees your PIN number. Despite this common worry, people fail to realize why identity theft still manages to grow. People make bad choices for security questions, passwords, online security, and they even sometimes put way too much information on publicly accessible Facebook pages. In the digital world, people are too lax. I prefer to keep the smallest number of windows possible and see that those windows I find necessary are secure.
Last, but certainly not least, is the fact that I will not miss anything for rejecting Steam. There is, in part, a principle concerning their EULA, their ownership of my material, and even the label of 'thief' that one may feel is attached to them, but more than anything, it's the fact that I lose nothing. I'm sure I would enjoy the story to Fallout: New Vegas or the action in Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, but I am playing games less and less often as time goes by. I have more friends than I use to and see them more than I use to. I have traveled more, taken up more hobbies, and experienced more 'firsts' in the last five years of my life than most of the rest. I guess I'm just coming into my own. Point remains that for every game I never play again, I turn that time to another pursuit. Although I have played some brilliant games, I can't say any outweigh any other experience. There is no loss on my part should I not play a video game.
Not asking SD or IC to reconsider or care. I am not hating anyone who likes Steam or Steam itself. Simply making it known that I am certainly not their audience in this situation. I wish them no more or less luck than I wish upon any other group of people I do not personally know.