Reading the timeline at the bottom makes this seem like a very frustrating process, it took multiple nudges and over a year for Valve to even start fixing. I can't imagine putting in this much work and getting such a lackluster response.
Connecting to these services safely is absolutely something players should have trust in.
A feature provided by all well designed client/server software. Thus avoiding vendor lock-in and dependence. Good for LAN-Parties, bad or no networking, original developer doesn’t exist anymore or doesn’t care.
And then there as these developers which are the only ones with the server code and shutdown their servers by intention - I recommend to avoid software which such a planned obsolescence.
(Also, why aren't you supposed to use other servers?)