Well, Valve doesn't HAVE management, but I'll put that aside. Yes, they have a hierarchy that has formed over the years, but it's not really ONE person pushing it down or shareholders putting pressure on upper management. Anyway, stay with me on this.

Valve is a REALLY great company, hindered by their disconnect from the community. What do I mean by this?

Last year I had the pleasure of interviewing for a Support position with Valve, and I can assure you that Valve HQ is every bit as amazing as you think. During the course of the interview I brought Valve's lack of community representation (besides Gaben) as an issue. That they should be having developer nights, Valve-organized events, etc. Valve could retain/regain reputation with the PC gamers by connecting to their userbase in ways that are meaningful, playful, and fun.

This observation was replied to with a tepid reaction: "We can't do anything with the community anymore because they take everything out of context", and "I can't really interact anymore because it becomes some huge news story on Kotaku: 'STEAM SUPPORT CONFIRMS HALF-LIFE 3?'". I was taken aback, because I'm the type of person that believes that while 90% of the internet is shitheads, the 10% are the ones you should be serving better.

This was amongst many other suggestions that made me believe that Valve doesn't really CARE to get their act together, whether it's because they don't have enough outsider perspective to see it, or because they're not quite sure how to go about it.

Needless to say, I wasn't hired on for support (long story to that one), and nothing has changed. I was, and continue to be, disappointed that this hasn't been something they've worked on, and doubly disappointed because I wanted to BE that change they so desperately need.