I do think people have become spoiled in a sense. Here we are now with the expectation that all PC games will be heavily discounted at the end of the year. I never sit there with console games and go "man everything will be on sale for 75%-50% off after christmas"
Steam started this and now people expect it. Not only that but others have finally showed up and try to chip away at Steam's stranglehold. How do they do it? By offering steam versions for same or less price(through coupons, etc). Its the only way they can compete. Do people constantly bitch at Amazon's sales? nope but its not like all of them are stellar. Some are, some aren't. Same with GMG, Gamefly, etc.
Then you also combine the fact that they padded out the duration, thus it has more of a slow burn to it all. I'd love for flash deals to be every couple hours just to get my new refresh kick.
But in general the sales by Steam are still good, but its diluted through competition and Steam having more sales throughout the year. I don't care if i get my steam games from other site, to me that's only a good thing as a consumer.
Edit: I do miss the meta game and the daily art with the Valve mascots
