I think that is a somewhat reductive take on the situation.

Yes, steam reviews have largely grown to be part of the PR cycle. The same way metacritic/opencritic did. And this is, in large part, what led to the rise of Influencers. Because Ubi have reached the point where “it is shit at launch but it will be good on a year” is considered a positive and… a lot of that is from all the streamers and youtubers who get paid to parrot those talking points.

Wanting to control their own store is more about maximizing revenue. Steam takes a relatively small cut (EGS takes an even smaller one). But it is still money that EA and Ubi and the like aren’t getting. That is why they prioritize their own stores.

But I think you have hit on something I’ve noticed over the course of the EGS mess. Steam Early Access doesn’t work anymore. People get angry that it exists, throw a hissy, and ignore games. Whereas, launching a game on a different store gives developers cash injection while limiting the consumers to the die hard fans. Because I don’t know ANYONE who browses the EGS store. But I know a lot of us bought Satisfactory or Salt and Sacrifice there because we could not wait. And that gets the actual Early Access community feedback without people complaining that this early access game is not as polished as Elden Ring.

And yeah, having the equivalent of some metacritic scores on the checkout page has a big impact. But, like I said, stuff like “review bombing” actively lessens that impact. Rather than “Oh, this is mostly negative, the devs must have screwed up” it becomes “Oh, this is mostly negative… Is that because there is a woman in the game or a single DLC was overpriced or is that because of actual gameplay reasons?”. At which point… those reviews are worthless again and I am back to listening to my favorite influencer.