This sounds like we're in agreement. Valve's cross platfor strategy is only detriment to an outfit like ms who is trying to wall in users.
You say:
You prefer the microsoft deal but that doesn't make it a detriment to users in general. Playstation users can enjoy crossplay with windows, mac, linux or any other other system or service. The fact that xbox users have a different deal is not down to manipulation on valve's part but a decision on microsoft's.
If you prefer microsoft's offer, then you are free to go there, but to suggest that valve is negatively impacting users in a direct way is off base.
If the way I've phrased my posts makes it sound like it's a universal negative, rather than something that applies to some users (including myself), then I've probably not done a good job of putting my thoughts across. There's very little that I ever view as being that black and white.. I just want to put across that this works both ways, and that simply having crossplay between console and Steam isn't universally positive either. Many are resistant of other distribution services on PC (such as Origin) specifically because they like their current standardisation, and the reliability of having all their gaming in one place... for a similar reason someone that favors the console experience may not be receptive to the inclusion of PC players in their otherwise console ecosystem, without it being handled in way that makes it seamless.
I'm not really sure how the conversation even ended up here tbh. I was initially replaying to a post that stated that Valve allowing competitive stores only helped them, and that MS and Sony should realise this. This should logically make the conversation about the service providers, and not the users directly. I disagreed with that poster for the reasons outlined in the part of my previous post that you snipped because you don't disagree. The way I see it, more users on the PC side benefit from the games releasing on Steam, but MS doesn't as it essentially relegates them to a simple publisher, whilst sabotaging their own ecosystem. On the console side, there's not a lot for the typical user to benefit from a Steam release, as Steam is a separate ecosystem, and its popularity on the PC side simply lessens the reliability of core Live functionality, as many of Steam's userbase would likely simply not use them. Windows 10 itself is more of a limiting factor than the Windows Store vs Steam imo. If I have a friend irl that doesn't own an Xbox, but I wanna play Killer Instinct with them, I doubt having to download it off the Windows Store is going to be a dealbreaker... unless of course they're not running Windows 10 at all.