You buy individual games on Steam and it stays on your account indefinitely - you do have to pick and choose what you buy.
Something like Microsoft’s Game Pass is closer to Netflix and Spotify than Steam.
Steam is more like the old iTunes Music Store model.
This is true, you don't need to pay an ongoing subscription for continued access to the games.
> You buy individual games on Steam and it stays on your account indefinitely - you do have to pick and choose what you buy.
But I'm very wary of that "indefinitely". Steam doesn't set an expiration date but they can do it at a moment's notice. Save goes for any store where the purchase (rental?) is permanently tied to the store.
Practically, it's very rare for games to disappear from a Steam library once purchased. It happens for stolen/fraudulently purchased keys (eg keys bought with stolen credit cards), but for a whole game it's very rare.
It has happened, but generally for games that relied on online servers for functionality and the servers have been taken down.