you have to be logged into Steam to play
No you don't, you can definitely run most games by themselves if you find the executable, and they can be played offline when steam is offline.
But I think the main reason everyone forgives steam cause they practically give the games away. In my case, when I got the golden potato, I was given every single Valve game, including Portal 2 on the day of release, for free.
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Brawl is like ZSS' breasts. Well rounded for casual players
http://ib.skaia.net/image/32143.gif