A more free marketplace wouldn't be an improvement, it would just make gaming look exactly as dismal as other tech industries. Out loud they might give bad rationalizations, but on some level they understand that under the current economic system the steam monopoly is as good as it can get for them.

Fighting to defend steam's monopoly in spite of it spitting in the face of free market values is a big step up from defaulting to an anti-monopoly stance. They're not dreaming big yet, but that's someone who can be radicalized.

What monopoly? Monopoly on selling games on Linux maybe.