I detest all forms of DRM. None of them serve their stated purpose, but rather were specifically designed to control the second-hand market. In this they have succeded. Steam is a method of DRM; however, given that the choice has basically become either accept some form of DRM or simply stop gaming legitimately, Steam, based on my own experience, is the best of a bad bunch. I mean, registering via Steam seems a hell of a lot better than Securom or the Ubisoft "always connected" crap, then again, Steam often includes Securom or other third-parrty DRM without telling anybody (it's on the Dr Ned's Zombie Island DLC for Borderlands and yet removed from the original game
). How hard would it be for Valve to enforce a policy requiring all companies to remove their third-party DRM before selling via Steam? At the very least, they could inform us where this isn't the case, you know, just to let us know exactly what we are installing as it might interest us.
End of rant.
Steam, for all its faults, is probably as good as it's ever going to get, from here on in.