But right now the only option for gamers who already have HL2/EP1 is to a) go and buy the more expensive Orange Box (which makes Valve more money), or b) buy the separate versions through Steam (with increases the profit margin for Valve). It's a win-win situation for Valve.

Actually in the interview Gabe is very vague about it. He claims there might be some bundles and he seems to intentionally avoid the question about ala carte/individual game pricing.

No, hence the idea to come up with a box of content worth $50 to consumers. Giving away anything is NOT the reason, and it is only being used as justification by Valve for the $50 price point.

The box could have been priced lower ($30) with just the three new game/gamettes in it. Valve did it to justify a $50 price point.

Several id bundles have been available at retail before including ones which contained all of id's games at the time of the bundle.

Putting all of your games/codes in one Steam account means it is much more likely to be targeted AND it is much more devastating when it happens.

Plus, Steam forces all users to have that extra crap running in the background whether they want it or not.

Second, game consoles all have media checks, and I don't see those owners decrying them.

First, the retail versions of some games on Steam have no media checks while the Steam versions require online authentication.

At least media checks put the ability to run the game totally in the hands of the buyer and not in some server on the Internet or customer service peon.