Valve had a company reach out to them that was about to go out of business for a game most people had literally never fucking heard of.

Epic's entire business plan was reaching out to companies and paying companies millions for exclusive rights to properties that were guaranteed money-makers.

I'm sorry, but they are different things, especially when Valve has never done it again. Sorry I don't subscribe to your fucking pedantry.

Also, to be clear on the differences, Valve didn't reach out offering to pay for a massively popular upcoming game, which is what Epic does as a business model. They had a company that was about to fail reach out to them, and they made an exclusivity deal with them, but Valve did not pay them for this deal. If you really fail to see the difference between those two things, I don't know what to tell you.