Valve doesn't strike me as the organization with well planned or strategic investment, they're kind of famous for letting people work on side projects like this

Valve doesn't strike me as the organization with well planned or strategic investment, they're kind of famous for letting people work on side projects like this. That said it's an attempt to break the chicken/egg cycle. The crowd is small because the crowd is small, if you offer a way to grow it artificially than you can gain critical mass. The big wrench is DRM/anti cheat though. That's the major thing holding me back from gaming with proton exclusively.