This is just a typical "DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING!@#$" reaction. In 5 years we most likely won't care, and the vocal minority will continue to talk about how gaming is ruined.
Admittedly, it can be a little temperamental about it unless you've got it set up just right, but that's its intent nonetheless.
Steam itself can work without a connection.
Lots of people saying "I would never buy the system if they support that", but in all likely hood any gamer would probably give in for the latest shiny consoles regardless of the used game restrictions. Maybe it wouldn't be a day-one purchase, but Sony and Microsoft don't care about that in the long term.
For the former, always-on DRM is already being used to severely curtail the avenues for redress available to purchasers. For example, one of the major consumer protections available today is to dispute fraudulent charges on your credit card if the merchant is uncooperative. However, try this with Steam, and you may find your entire account locked out, including completely unrelated, legitimate purchases. You essentially lose your right to third-party arbitration of disputes.
The latter is more vague, but it seems likely that emulating bygone titles from today is going to be a lot harder than emulating bygone titles of the 80s is.