Its not a random update in response to Epic.

The September 9 beta branch mentioned improved start up time.

Steam quietly improves itself without making big announcements calling out other companies to try to get attention. Its why it has been working on stuff like Proton, steamos, and hardware.

This isn't a case of competition though; Valve didn't slip in a last second speedup to get back at Epic, the patch had already been built and tested and just happened to come out a day after Epic's did.

I'm with you on this. I've been rather annoyed with watching steam constantly needing to re-download 500 MB of whatever the hell randomly and I run a lot of computers that restart often (benchmarking shitty PCS is kind of a hobby for me).

I'm glad someone called them out and I'm glad that they responded by improving their software and in record time packing it into the next regular release.

This whole thing looks like the market acting like it should when there is at least a tiny modicum of competition. Just wish the competition was healthier and more vibrant. And less Epic.