How is Netflix better? You still don't own it and they are probably more likely to remove it than a movie store.
When you buy a title on Amazon, Apple, etc., the digital services are selling you on "ownership". In theory, this will be in your account forever (without any money changing hands after the initial transaction). The reality is obviously not so simple.
Every once in a while I think a little too much about how most of my games only run due to the benevolence of a company, and I start researching what it would take to run without steam. but in the end, steam is is such a quality of life improvement that I accept their solid track record of not fucking up and keep buying games there.
I think the proper paranoid way to buy games on steam would be to use a separate account for each one. then you could treat them as a sellable item.... which would be such a huge pain in the neck their would be no point of using steam in the first point(except, perhaps that it is the only place the game is sold.)