At the time, my parent's PC had internet, mine didn't. The box said I needed an internet computer, I did not consider that I would need a permanent connection on the computer I wanted to play in. I couldn't figure out a way to get HL2 working on my room's computer, so I ended up pirating the game.

I stayed away of steam and anything client-related for 7 years, until another game blindsided me with it. Only this time, I was traveling and the cloud features were actually usefull. So I started using it then.

Oh, I did. The pirate version, not the steam one. Which is why I say it's funny I have an "8 years of service" badge when I didn't actually play a game there until last year.

They didn't do that because it'd be pretty easy for someone to use Steam Achievement Manager to cheat and get all those special bonuses people who actually play the games would get, and then some.

Which sucks for us who actually play the damn games and don't cheat.

I get that, but the current system doesn't prevent exploits either (e.g. you don't have to play any of the games, just load them to the menu screen and go to bed). Tying a lot of monetary bonuses to the system is a mistake to begin with in my opinion. It incentivizes cheating. If your steam level is just a number for peer comparison, then nobody cares if you cheated your way to max level (because there's no real advantage for it), and I don't care about people who do because they are not in my peer group. Although, I agree that a cheat free environment with game related bonuses would be ideal.

As an aside, the market dynamics of the cards is pretty interesting to watch. There is clearly a group of people buying cards to craft and another group buying cards on speculation that their value will increase. So, I'm not ignoring it as much as I thought, but hopefully soon :)

At the moment the 'cheating' is limited. There's only generally just under half of the cards for a game you can get that way. Any further cards either have to be traded for or bought.

Once supply of available cards (after crafting) out there dwindles, Booster packs get randomly assigned to people who own the game, have already received all their allotted card drops, and have logged in at max 7 days ago.

For the booster pack your level is actually relevant as every 10 levels you get increases you chance of getting booster packs by 20%

I kind of like it because there's no massive idling involved except for a bit when you get the game. (and you could play it too you know :p). After that extra card drops (boosters) can simply randomly happen provided you use Steam at least semi-regularly.