Game Pass doesn't give you ownership of games however. Microsoft can rotate games out of Game Pass in a matter of weeks to months. If you want to keep those, pay out CAPEX in addition to your ongoing OPEX costs via Game Pass.

And if those games you liked that you went out and bought have online multiplayer, well then you're locked into ongoing OPEX via Game Pass Core in order to get at least multiplayer access. This is regardless of whether you use Game Pass to explore new games.

Subscriptions also induce FOMO and create uncertainty costs. Microsoft can choose rotate a game out of Game Pass, which then forces you to make a decision about whether you play it to 100% completion before it's gone, or buy it. And because Game Pass is a subscription, Microsoft can choose to raise its prices for access to the same games for no real reason.

With Steam, I "own" my games so I know I can always play them for the foreseeable future. With Steam, if some of my games have multiplayer, I only need to pay my telco utility bill to gain access. With Steam, I don't have FOMO because my games aren't going away, and I limit my uncertainty costs because I only need to consider my telco utility raising prices and not my telco + Microsoft.

Ultimately though, I think the top comments of this reddit post speak to the pros and cons of both platforms. If there's an expensive AAA game coming out that you want to play, it's cheaper to do the Game Pass route to play on Day 1. If you want to own that game long term, you can stop Game Pass payments until the next Steam sale to get the game discounted (else you run into the above issues). Game Pass to try, Steam to "own". Plus with a Steam Deck, you can dual boot Windows and SteamOS, so you can do Game Pass PC and Steam on the same device. No need to really buy into the Xbox ecosystem.