You do realise that ranting over Steam won't make any difference right? If you don't like it, don't use it, plain and simple. No one is forcing you to.
Technically, Steamworks games can force you to use it, but there are legal ways around it so if you buy the retail copy it's usually possible to circumvent the game installing Steam/run the game without it, though it can be a pain.
Personally, I don't see why anyone would unless they had limited bandwidth or were pirates. I love Steam, and thus far I haven't had any problems with any of my games caused by it.