Value is personal, I for one want a game, I dont want a bloated web browser that only connects through steam, which is what the steam client is. All the thing I need steam to do I can do and I can do it in a more agnostic way and less bloated. I use wayland therefore steam does not run without xwayland support enabled and even when enabled I can’t stream my desktop over steam remote.

• Can’t use remote play and have an open source implementation that has fine tuning controls.
• Installing mods through third party tools or manually is easy enough and allows for multiple distributors.
• Dont use vr and even so its a closed ecosystem.
• More than happy to visit steam in my own browser to buy and download games if that was possible.
• Dont care for skins, cards, or any of the inventory system.
• I talk to friends through open source solutions.

If you do however want a streaming, mod manager, vr, forum, store front, download manager, DRM and much more in one bloated application then yes the value proposition is there.

I highly value diy solutions in software, you on the other hand may not. And this is fine. GOG offers more to me than to you as steam offers less for me than for you.