As I understand it the main criticism of Steam when it was first implemented in Half-Life 2 was the fact that it was not made sufficiently clear that you would need an internet connection to play a singleplayer game (and that game stores would not refund people who had bought the game not realizing this because the need for an internet connection was buried in the small print).

But surely so long as the need for an internet connection is written on the front in big letters, it's not such a problem? Unless there are some more fundamental issues with Steam itself that I am not aware of; if there are any, they certainly aren't as well publicized as the problems with SecuROM or Starforce.

Personally, I'm not aware of any reason to avoid Steam since, well, I clearly do have an internet connection. I don't much like SecuROM (especially the increasingly Draconian versions we have seen recently) and I doubt I will buy another game with it included.