As with most app stores, Steam does not aspire to be a curated collection of "good" apps, and discovery features have never been sufficient as substitutes for traditional marketing mechanisms.

AI undoubtedly hurts slop hurts small independent developers who rely more on Steam placement and internal reviews than traditional marketing more than it hurts Steam itself, so if I were a small independent developer, I'd be looking elsewhere for solutions, treating Steam more like larger publishers do, primarily as a distribution mechanism rather than a marketing tool.