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Originally Posted by Oberon
Oh, not as queer as you'd think, but I'm not downloading things all the time, so Steam is happy to run in the background while I surf Subsim or do whatever. The only time it causes a hinderance is if it suddenly decides to download an update whilst I'm playing a multiplayer game, although it's smart enough to know that if you're playing a Steam game it won't download updates, but if it's a non-Steam game you're playing it doesn't know, so sometimes the best bet is to kill it temporarily.
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I do not like full automization and the computer doing its thing, and you, the user, not becoming aware of it. I have Steam switched off if I do not play AC and expect an update, which usually gets announced in advance, and after the big ones you know that in the coming days there will be hotfixes. For Skyrim, it is in offline mode anyway, since there are no more patches at all.
It is an open line into your system, and thus a principle security risk. I like my rig being locked and shut up pretty tightly, since I am no multiplayer fan anyway. So Steam goes active only when I need it. Even website script management I mostly have on manual operation, saves me from much suspicious stuff trying to run on my system. Needs a bit more attention and manual confirmation by the user when surfing, but is a security boost for sure. And additional scriptblockers are great.
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I can understand the downloading hell, but I've never had that problem with Steam...plenty of times I've had it with the likes of Internet Explorer, Getright, and that back in the 56k days, but the only time Steam has broken things it has been the developers mistake, not the service.
And besides, not much can beat spending an entire week downloading one episode of an anime, only to find that you've downloaded the episode with Spanish subtitles instead of English... 
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As I said, its ~3000 kbit/sec here, which is solid DSL speed though not the speerhead of data transfering speeds, but it gives you the new website within 2 seconds, and that is good enough for me. I now use Firefox (Opera they messed up, and Forefox has become really nice since the days I tested it in earlier versions that all ran terribly). At that speed, downloads via Steam (or other downloads) conflict with normal web activity, making all web browsing laggy and stuttering, taking longer time. Also, and that is my main point, the risk is there that the activity interferes with the download process, making it to freeze, or producing an erratic result. So when downloading really big files, I tend to leave the system untouched and in idle mode, not doing something with it. Redownloading something that got corrupted is okay with a download of 100 MB, you do it again, wait 5 Minutes, and you're done. With a dozen GB or so, such things become a PITA.
I still prefer it the old way: a dedicated forum or other place, a note posted that there is a new patch, and the option to manually download it
at a time of my choice. Until then being able to use the old version of the software as to my own likes and choices. It may be primitive and not nerdy enough for today's era, but to me it still has the best of charms. I do not change to something new just because it is new - but when it is a clear improvement I can benefit of, or my old thing is broken anyway.