Steam Market Ideas :D

Wouldn't that reward system be like, you know, trading cards. I mean, that's pretty much the reason why they exist.

Those programs essentially amount to a tiny discount. For example a common grocery store in my region does $0.10/gallon off of gas when you spend $100 in store. You'd have to buy 1000 gallons of gas to recoup the $100. It's just a marketing trick that mostly keeps you're business with them and may also increase spending. Same goes for those credit card cash back programs. Basically its a 1-3% discount on everything, which is better than nothing but it's designed to get you to buy more with the CC thus increasing the chance you carry a balance and have to pay them back interest to the tune of ~20%. Since Steam essentially has the digital marketplace cornered at the moment I wouldn't expect to see anything big unless something like GOG Galaxy(ies?) rises up and starts to eat away a significant portion of their customer base. ATM the market and trading cards can be a much better deal. Heck, I've more than payed for my copy of CS:GO through the market and a $10 game with $.50 worth of cards (4 cards @ $.12-$.13) is a 5% discount.