I have never had any problems with Steam.
I don't know what infor they collect and don't really care. They have never sold my email or spammed me in anyway. Sure I get their latest "News Update" when I launch a game, a simple click makes that go away.
Steam starting causing a delay in game launch time. Yeah, those 10 seconds are real buzz killers, I know
You do not have to get updates from steam exclusively. You can turn off auto update for any game, if you don't want the latest version to be applied. You can get patches downloaded from other sites to use. I have a couple games that were patched from outside sources.
Steams saved my HL2 install, as disk 4 would not read one time. I figured I was out of luck, but thought I would ask at Steam. When I launched Steam I saw HL2 in My Games and click on it to Complete the Install. Sure enough, it completed the install and it is working to this very day.
I am sure some can find fault with their system. I am only speaking from my experiences with them. Not a single problem. If fact the benefits far outweigh any and all drawbacks.