Steam - I hate you

Unbelievable. Truly shocking. Finally got Half Life 2 running last night, but how bad is Steam? I haven't been so frustrated trying to get a game to work since that dicky copy of Winter Games I had for my C64. For those of you lucky enough not to have experienced it, Steam is developer Valve's online distribution system. For the first time ever owners of a game have to authenticate it online before being able to play it. Just about bearable in theory, terrible in execution. It took me about 4 hours to get up and running, waiting for the overworked servers to unlock and authenticate my files. Of course, Valve know that gamers will put up with this to play Half Life 2, but it is obvious they didn't anticipate the demand their servers would get. So far the game seems worth it, but how many people have they alienated with this cock-up? Anyone else had fun and games with Steam?