[citation]Steam has had a lot of problems with releases, and patching games recently.[/citation]
Not sure how much this has to do with Steam. All the noticeable releases that have been having launch issues are ones that require an online account with said developer - i.e. EA, IW.net, Gamespy, Windows Live, etc. All the games that don't require this tomfoolery happen to install and work just fine... It's when you start need to validate all over the place that there are issues. Steam's fault? Hardly. Developers trying to get people to sign up with them? You decide.