only gets 25% of the profits

This whole post was made to show that the amount given is dependent on the publisher.

only sees any money at all if they sell over $400 worth of downloads

• Newgrounds is $100 of ad revenue before they give you anything

• Google Adsense (And Youtube) is $100.

• Apples iTunes store is apparently $150. They also take a %30 cut (The same as Steam) and you actually have to pay Apple $100 a year just for the rights to publish on their platform.

• Google apparently doesn't have a minimum payout figure although you do have to pay a $25 one off fee to be able to publish to them

That $400, could easily be much less depending on the first point.

has to give up all rights and ownership of the item they put up - which means that Valve can and will and already has dicked them around if they want to remove it.

This is the digitial age, almost anything being hosted on anothers server involves giving up some sort of rights to your works.

Currently any game you purchase can break and very will likely break at some point, and you are also not entitled to a refund. If your game stops working suddenly, you're left with the same problem. Steam do provide a refund within the first 24 hours if your product does not work when you purchase it though.

Only buy from reputable developers or recognise that you face a risk of the product not working or ever being completed in the future. This is the same thing we deal with with early access/green light games and fully released titled. The risk to a consumer is sadly nothing new.