Rusty_Gunn: it was easy enough to know that it didn't sound like it was for me when Half-life 2 was the thang fast forward to 2010 in an effort to avoid steam (Fallout New vegas) I preordered a game on Amazon that had NO mention of being a "Steam-on-disc" it turned out to be THE WORST PC game install experience I've ever had (including the time when a legit game CD was blank) & my experience goes far enough back to a time that installing a game meant you might need to type it in yourself.
Half Life 2 was one of the worst installation experiences I had, though I have to say that typing a game yourself definitely beats that, and the reason you don't think so is probably that you were young at the time or don't remember it well. Just going over the list of data in a C64 (or VIC20) game to find the one number you typed wrong was a terrible chore (which of course you take in stride as a kid).
That said, buying on Steam and installing from the Steam app is one of the easiest installation experiences, and generally beats any disc based installation, as long as you have a decent internet connection.