There are practical barriers still tho. You’ll have to either maintain or outsource maintaining:

• hosting infrastructure
• CDN
• Security (both frontend and backend)
• DRM (either serial numbering or yet another hosted verification services)
• user accounts and data handling
• payment processing

And that’s for a basic game, if you want feature parity with steam, add on top:

• version control and access (playtests, betas)
• version control for other platforms (Mac, Linux)
• hosting for savefile sync, achievements
• hosting for UGC (mods, screenshots, configs, recording)
• hosting and infrastructure for user livestreaming
• CDN for mods
• review (automated or manual) for mods or UGC
• legal protection and compliance against UGC
• multiplayer service infrastructure
• automated/manual moderation of game servers/lobbies
• anticheat system
• hosting for newsfeed (update announcements, news)
• and so on, you get the point…

By the time you implement the basic stuff and half of the extras, might as well pay the 30% commission and just focus on what you wanted to do: make games. Instead of having to cosplay as a sysadmin or orchestrate 15 different providers

+1 for Barony, especially with the DLCs. However, it’s important to go easy at first. Don’t scoff at the assistance shrine/items and custom options like turning off hunger or modding to make your first runs a bit easier. Vanilla can be excruciatingly frustrating, and you might bounce off a really fun game!