Pheace: Either way you still need to log in though? The difference is then basically whether you want to use Steam with it's UI (and surrounding 'bloat' if you think that way) to do it or a program with a more streamlined command line option (for people who are still used to command lines)
I can see how some would prefer the latter. Alternate OS and data files seem pretty good reasons too.
Yup, you still need to login. It's basically comparable to the GOG downloader, except instead of downloading installers, it creates folders of installed games. I don't think it handles any of the "first-run" configuration that the client does, so if you've got a game that requires registry entries or other installers to be run, you'll have to manage that manually, or do the first run with the client. I've only used it on Linux with games I knew beforehand didn't need the client, so I haven't run into this.
If it's a game that doesn't use Steam's CEG DRM, then you don't need either the client or steamcmd running to play the game. Games that I know work this way I install directly into my /usr/local/games folder, just like I do with GOG games. At this point they are DRM free games, I can run them directly from the game executable, and there isn't any requirement for the client or anything.
On Linux, I have had some issues with dependancies, but it's mostly becuase I'm not using Ubuntu or SteamOS, which are the only officially support distro's. On a couple of occasions I've had to copy and paste some libs from the steam runtime.
Reasons I like it:
1) Finegrained control on install location.
2) Easy to manage in-place, incremental updates
3) Can be easily used through SSH & screen. I can acquire a game while at work, and easily start it downloading on my home computer.
My biggest complaint is that it isn't always convenient to know what the AppID is. SteamCMD doesn't provide any method of figuring out the AppID either.
