My experience with Steam on windows has not been entirely pleasant. Granted, the poor user interface, and the endless amount of intrusion into the startup and gaming process can quickly be forgiven in light of the fact that I got one of the most entertaining games I've ever played through Steam: Portal.
Still, as someone who really doesn't want to have to own a high-end windows box for the sole purpose of gaming, this announcement make me (cautiously?) optimistic.
They've just released an early version of the new UI, and it's MUCH faster and less intrusive (I think). That said, I can't really say it's all that bad when compared to most any other similar tool. Plus, SteamFriends and other things are just plain amazing for gamers -- frankly I don't know how I used to get by without them.
Last time I used Steam I spent a couple of hours trying to debug a game that crashed on startup. Eventually I figured out how to start the game without Steam interfering, and found that when I start the game without Steam I would get a very helpful error message, that told me exactly what the problem was. When I started the game with steam, the game would just crash with no error messages.
I own 150 odd games on Steam. I'm possibly right in the "average" for a gamer, ~ 25 years old, lots of disposable income (corporate programming) etc. Most of my gamer orientated friends are sitting in the same category, and also own ~100 -> 200 games each. Perhaps steam just isn't orientated towards you? Did you jump on the forums (the quickest solution to a problem is to ask) or fire off a support request (can take ~ 10 days, but usually they will resolve it?). I personally love that I can see when a friend jumps into a game of TF2 (Team Fortress 2), and follow them in with 2 clicks (right click on name ==> join server).
Still, all the same, it's nice to have a high end windows box just for gaming. I also use mine for testing web sites (so it's a valid company purchase :)
Still, as someone who really doesn't want to have to own a high-end windows box for the sole purpose of gaming, this announcement make me (cautiously?) optimistic.