Kind of a shitty choice, dont you think?
It's the choice. Steam or no Steam with some games, and it's no different to, say, Sins of a Solar Empire requiring Impulse past a certain update level nor a game requiring SecuROM to run. Steam is just one thing publishers can use, but like Impulse, Valve have made Steam more attractive to both the publisher and the user by making it
usefulIts not attractive to meAnd said patches are forced upon you whether you want them or not.
No. It has an option to disallow updates.
Even when set to disallow updates - it updatesA monopoly is never a good thing no matter how well intentioned.
Steam is in no danger of becoming a monopolistic entity.