Valve has done more damage to gaming than any other company.
You're going to need to explain that one.
To me, Steam is a storefront that provides a simple, cheap, and easy way to accumulate, play, and maintain a PC game library across multiple devices. While they have been a bit of a monopoly in the past, I'm not seeing how that is damaging in the slightest.
Valve is the one that popularized games being digital only and all the negatives that come along with it. Paid digital distribution has created the environment for disgusting business tactics such as early access aka paying to test a game when devs used to have to pay people to test their game, DLC, micro transactions, intentionally releasing unfinished/buggy games to the point of being unplayable since they can just be easily patched later, doesn't leave a sour taste in your mouth for paying for a game that is unfinished/buggy to the point of being unplayable since it is so easy to update, games as a service which digital distribution is, not being able to sell it, being expected to pay for a digital download, making games even more popular from easy access to people who otherwise wouldn't play or play as much thus making them a huge market which makes companies make games focused on them instead of actual gamers, lowered the barrier for entry, etc.
Gabe Newell said it was a bad thing that developers in the NES days had to release their games complete and whole since they had no way of patching it. Same thing is happening to consoles these days, most "physical" copies aren't even physical copies since they don't have the entire game on disc and can't be played without a patch. I think they are doing it on purpose to get people to switch to digital. I've seen a lot of people say they pay for digital on consoles now since the "physical" copies dont have the entire game on disc anyways, but that is exactly why they are doing it. Half Life 2 was the first case of online client DRM for a single player game even if you bought it physically, you still had to keep the disc in the drive even after authorizing it on Steam. Make physical copies as hard to deal with as possible to get people to switch to digital. Games on consoles at least used to be released complete and whole, playable without a patch. That all changed when they expected people to connect to each console's digital distribution platform.
A lot of the "positives" Valve and paid digital distribution users tout are not positives, they are negatives. Updates are a good example, those are not a good thing, that means the developer did not release a complete and/or playable game and being able to easily update encourages developers to release unfinished or unplayable games since they can just patch it later.
The rest of the industry picked up Valve's tactics after they saw the "PC master race" fell for it.
"Cheap"
Nope, games are more expensive than ever when you take into consideration you are no longer getting a physical copy or manual, DLC and micro transactions exist, games are released unplayable without a patch, only paying to access files from a server, etc. Steam or any other digital sale is not cheap. Regular physical PC copies used to be better than most modern collector's editions. If a restaurant charges $5 for a sip of water, that sip of water is not cheap just because it is only $5.
Whatever convenience is provides is insignificant. I don't need the "cloud" (aka someone else's computer), the very few save files I want to keep I already back up myself. I already back up my own media, whether it be ripped from my physical copies or pirated. When you pay for digital you are essentially giving a donation to a company and as consolation get a license to access a part of their special server, they won't even admit it is a donation, instead they try to brainwash you with the "support the developer" line which a lot of people have fell for. Piracy is just as easy, easier in a lot of ways since you don't have to have an account or proprietary client, and allows you to play games without financially rewarding paid digital distribution and all the negatives that are inherent with it.
The entire industry and all PC developers were pushing it as hard as they can, all the "journalists" were pushing for it too and did not explain the many negatives.
The more popular paid digital distribution has got, the worse things get. It is being pushed so hard for a reason.