This has absolutely nothing to do with the article. The entire point was the political rat race to obtain the first mover advantage to eventually monopolize local markets, backed by government hindrance to competition.
We've seen this happen time and time again. Just look at what OpenAI tried to do with their AI safety bullshit. They're the "only ones" that can distribute AI safely lest it destroy us all. No ulterior motives there whatsoever.
Can you elaborate? Would you prefer the Linux ecosystem to remain less user-friendly, to maintain whatever principles you have in mind? Also, what principles are you referring to?
As long as Valve remains a private company I will trust them to do a good job over pretty much every other gaming-related company. Publicly traded companies are just fundamentally unable to be anything other than pure-profit driven, while the reverse is not true for private companies. Still profit driven, but not forced to have that sole focus.
Too many posts on HN now are just nasty liars like this OP looking to bullshit others.