One problem is that some of us (like myself) don't want a fundamental change in the way we buy our games. Developers need to negotiate better terms with publishers, yes, but I can't support the current push to cut them out of the picture entirely, not when it means an inferior product for me as a consumer.
Yes, you heard me correctly. Inferior. A download-only model introduces too many dependencies and inconveniences into what should be the simple business of playing my games. Want a hardcopy manual? Too bad--go print the .pdf and shove it in a binder. Hard drive died? Well, you're going to have to re-download several hundred megs worth of games now, because you don't have discs to reinstall from. Better hope your ISP's not down for maintenance. And what if the company you bought your software from goes out of business? Then you're really screwed. Of course, you might have had the foresight to burn backups for yourself, but even then, if they insist on connecting to a remote authentication server before they'll run (or checking in periodically while they're running as an anti-piracy measure), you're still screwed. And that's not even getting into the potential privacy issues. Once you get past all the smoke (Steam?) and mirrors, there really aren't many consumer benefits at all.
