I don't really understand what the thread is trying to say. steam forums pop up in searches because steam holds the majority of the pc market share, the majority of games are played on steam, and they are one of the first places ppl will go for technical advice, all of this being x years in the making (i dunno when steam discussions first popped up, I don't think it was there on launch). Before steam discussions existed there were other alternatives, and those alternatives still existed while steam surged in popularity.
Are we saying that lack of access to one of the most popular forms of diy tech support (made popular in very large part due to steam being the defacto game launcher for a long ass time) is some sort of negative when alternatives still exist? Is the fact that I have to go to gog forums instead of a steam page so I can figure out stuff about OG Baldurs Gate 2 some sort of negative? AFAIK, steam forums are the top searches purely because 1. Pretty much everyone uses steam over other things, 2. Because Valve offers this as a service, there is less of a need for devs to make/pay for their own forums, and 3. it redirects users from other alternatives like pcgamingwiki or reddit by virtue of being adjacent to the user and the game by existing within the same launcher. So to this end, to me the reliance that ppl seem to have on steam discussions was largely created by the enormity of steam + it's ease of use since it is the de facto pc store. All this really means to me is that ppl and devs have an unhealthy reliance on steam and certain features, and that games that do not want to use steam will just suffer? I dunno.
I think we all agree that EGS is a lesser product than Steam with less features, but the idea that ppl will go to the BL2 steam forums rather than the gearbox forums really seems kind of unhealthy to me and is imo a good snapshot of the hold valve has on the pc market currently.