Yep, but 505 half-assed it.

A bunch of them, yes. But the worst is over now.

In this case, totally legit - but hopefully not a sufferer of apophenia, lol.

Apophenia noun
ap·​o·​phe·​nia | \ ˌa-pə-ˈfē-nē-ə \
Definition of apophenia
: the tendency to perceive a connection or meaningful pattern between unrelated or random things (such as objects or ideas)
What psychologists call apophenia—the human tendency to see connections and patterns that are not really there—gives rise to conspiracy theories.

Thanks!

Which is not to say Steam needs to answer

I believe the crux of the matter is in what you said yourself. Steam already has functional shop with huge number of active users and/or customers. Giving away lots of games for free is a money sink - and move exactly as desperate as you are required to make to actually get some customers to look at you when you are so below Steam in every possible comparison. Steam doesn't need to throw money away exactly because it is superior - EGS needs to because otherwise they lose in every way to Steam.
So to answer your question: probably never, and certainly not anytime soon.

Valve has already been responding to EGS, it's just been more subtle. The whole Points Shop addition for example, with all of the extra customization options for your Steam profile. You can get extra showcases or upgrade current ones, animated avatars, frames, backgrounds and mini-backgrounds. No to mention the awards system for user-created content. It's as if Valve looked at the EGS storefront and said "You don't even have a shopping cart.", then proceeded to augment its already feature-complete platform. So essentially it seems like the attitude is that the customer has the choice to get free software and reside in a barren wasteland that's purportedly vast yet as shallow as a puddle, or they can continue to engage in a more substantial platform where all of their friends and communities are already situated. When one is secure, their attitude tends to be more to live and let live...and when one is insecure, they tend to overcompensate to varying degrees directly dependent on their level of insecurity. You can't buy loyalty, it needs to be earned. I think Valve understand this, whereas that other platform clearly does not. As @sallachim very intuitively stated, it's very much "a money sink".

I still paused anyway though, hahah. Now i wonder what's the maximum amount of discount that you can get from this method ;)

Congrats! Have fun with the games :)

Ooh, tempting but I'm afraid if I attempt to pause too much they'll figure out that I'm coupon fishing and ban me from coupon offers, as I did that twice for the past 2 months, lol

So I'm gonna save my coupon fishing for choice bundles I'm legit unsure of like the prior 2.

yes only the base game :(

Or as another example, Indivisible from the Steam Store has the preorder / Kickstarter bonus companion that follows you around: https://steamdb.info/sub/85896/apps/
While the bundle version does not: https://steamdb.info/sub/447016/apps/

Wow, thank you for this extensive and informative reply, Lilly. Much appreciated ♥

Yes but it will take hundreds of hours knowing how 2K handled it in past WWE games. Also, it is an online-only game so when 2K do their annual server shutdown, you won't be able to do much in the game - that includes earning the currency needed to unlock the wrestlers in-shop. I'm on the fench with the bundle - the DLC stuff is off-putting, very slimy of 505 Games to make a seperate edition to bypass giving us the full game.

At the moment, I think wwe 2k playgrounds is better than nba because you can unlock more easily things.
I have 3-4 hours and I bought one package that includes 6-7 superstars and at the start you have 10-15 superstarts to play with so I like it.
And the deluxe edition content you can unlock it playing, It will take time but you can unlock everything in game.
In NBA 2k playgrounds I remeber that the clothes you have to buy them with golden bucks.