Comment by ajuc

> They don't because too many people pirate games to make that a viable business

I think mostly they don't because people already have steam installed, and creating a new account on some other website to buy 1 game is too much hassle.

See dwarf fortress that was free for decades, and got much more popular when it was released on steam (paid version).

Or see Vintage Story which is great, and should be much more popular, but it's only available on its own website.