It certainly boils down to no one knowing the particulars, this is true. At the end of the day though like I said before even if EA was saying "fuck you Steam we don't need you piss off" and being extremely obvious about it I still would not have a greater problem with it than I have with Steam itself.
Valve sell exclusively on their store and tie all copies to their service. Blizzard sell exclusively on their store and tie all copies to their service. Why can't EA do the same? The answer is: because you guys like to jump EA's shit.