I don't think Steam is very good either. You still have to go online and activate your single player games, not much unlike the EA fiasco last year with Mass Effect and Spore.
Online activations for single player games svcks, no matter if it's Valve, EA, 2K Games or someone else.
http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/publishingservices.php, in the general scheme of things. Aside from when your internet connection flakes out, the integration with its games is seamless and it's not a very cumbersome program either. I could understand someone who only buys, say, Half-Life 2 may be a bit irked by it, but if you're an avid Valve fan like myself and have a ton of stuff tied to your account, it's quite the blessing.