If we are talking about the first game, yes, there might be people who redeemed it from the bundle without downloading. However, any non-bundle game is unlikely to have been bought and forgotten. The payout for the bundle copies is less than $1 per bundle.
17k copies for the game is bad, regardless how you spin it. You should contrast Trails sequels with other JPRGs on Steam, then you will understand just how bad 17k copies is compared to the average of what "Tales of" or Hyperdimension.
Cold Steel 1 broke a million mark on PS4. PC is selling 3-4% of what PS4 did. You can use the mentality that 3%>0%, but XSEED would benefit much more if they focused on PS4, Switch and mobile.
Cold Steel 1 broke a million on PS4 ?
Wtf are you smoking. It opened at 10k units for its Japanese release.
Cold Steel 1 broke a million on PS3/Vita combined worldwide with more than 2 years of sales as a BRAND NEW title.
Cold Steel 1 on Steam is targeted at a a western audience, in which Trails is a niche serie. XSEED gets shit to focus on more-expensive-to-developp-for platforms where said titles makes 90% of their sales in Japan/Asia... In which Falcom self publish their games.