Epic, buying up every exclusive and banning you for trying to get a deal on it.

Authorized reseller discounts have gotten weaker in recent years as publishers have become more strict about pre-order discounts. Sekiro, for example, was impossible to pre-order for more than 10% off. Borderlands 3 hasn’t had any discounts at all. I think authorized resellers are allowed to have bigger discounts than…

You need to do more research. Gamestop still sells digital PC games, as does Amazon. For a time, Amazon actually had a lot of good sales on digital games but they kind of gave up. Now they just price match Steam during the big sales. Direct2Drive, the only example you considered valid, was purchased by GameFly and the…

Steam was never the only store. There have been competitors since it launched. Impulse, Direct2Drive, Amazon, Origin, Uplay, GOG, Itch.io, Desura, Gamestop, Battle.net, Gamefly, etc.