You can buy a $10-$20 Steam card. Seriously, it really isn't as big of a deal as you want this to be.
Breaking news: Steam cards aren't available in every country. Not to mention, you still have to pay additional money after you bought your game and as was previously mentioned, Steam prices in Europe aren't as attractive (compared to other shops, digital and retail) as they are in America.
Requiring people to spend money at a store to be able to hang out at the store. What a shocking concept.
Steam isn't just a store. It wouldn't be a problem if it was just that. But for many people it's a service that they have to use in order to activate and play their games.
I really do feel sorry for anyone who thinks that $5 makes someone "rich".
Oh ffs, it's not about how much it is. It's about that you have to count it as additional cost to your new $60 game if you don't have a Steam account yet (or are still a limited user) and that you have to spent (or at least lock) those money on Steam even if you don't need to buy anything from the store.
Apart from the friend invite non of the restrictrions have much impact. unless you think voting on workshop items and the steam market (how do you even use this one without a credit card) are key features.
and friends can still invite you.
Except friend invites is a big feature, since without it you can't talk with other gamers via Steam (sucks for games that don't allow in-game chat) and can't invite them to play a game. Yeah, it's no issue if those "other gamers" are your friends you know from real life or other social services. It sucks though if you've just played a good co-op game with a random stranger found via matchmaking and now have to hope that he decides to send you a friend invitation (unless he's also a limited user - then you're both screwed).
One can get keys for free or very cheap thanks to indie bundles and giveaways, so no, it wouldn't work if retail games were allowed to lift the limit.
Then maybe Valve should change their key generator so that based on the key they could different between retail CD keys and those handed to Humble Bundles and other such initiatives?
People are ignoring it because these hypothetical users who have hundreds of dollars of retail activated software on their account, have never spent a dime on the store directly, but somehow desperately need Steam mobile chat and trading cards are imaginary.
Friend invites. Yes, those other features are meaningless, but being able to invite those random people you've just played a game with as friends is a big feature.
