I realize this isn't a complete fix, but you can hook any game (or .exe really) that you like into the Steam ecosystem by using the "add non-Steam game to library" functionality. That way you can still keep the one interface for launching all of your games and organize them like you do in Steam.
It's a bad experience. This is what it's like to play the Uplay copy of Watch Dogs 2 that was bundled with my GPU via Steam:
(note: for some reason the game's videos drop to a very low frame rate with OBS recording, not sure why)
- Multiple UAC prompts, which require me to get the keyboard.
- Prompts from Uplay which opened behind the Steam window and require me to use a mouse.
- The overlay was unable to hook into the game as a result of the above, so my Steam Controller (or DualShock 4) doesn't work properly with it.
- The game takes forever to load because it was unable to connect to the Uplay servers.
- Quitting the game kicks me back to a broken Uplay client window, not Steam.
If you're trying to play games on a TV with a controller, third-party clients often kill the experience - with Uplay being the worst by far.
It gets even worse when the Uplay client requires an update first, as that introduces more delays and UAC prompts, and most of the time quitting a Uplay game will display a pop-up ad too.
Can't wait to see the reactions once the PC marketplace goes streaming in a big way.
I would expect consoles to be most impacted by this.
People buy consoles because they are relatively affordable, easy, and convenient. That's easily supplanted by streaming.
PC is where the high-end enthusiast market is, for people that are willing to pay more have the best experience; the highest performance, the best image quality, the lowest latency etc. They have also been most resistant to giving up control over their experience. Streaming is in direct opposition to that.
I think streaming is far less viable than many people seem to believe. No-one is going to confuse a streamed game with one running locally any time soon, and the infrastructure is not going to be there for the majority of people playing games for a very long time.
Being able to receive a low quality Netflix stream—which is still out of reach for many people—is far less demanding than trying to play a game.