Some of the internal files revealed through discovery in the Apple v. Epic lawsuit are extremely relevant to the Steam vs Epic matter. Most notably, Epic's internal briefing documents admit that they hire paid influencers to disrupt Steam reviews.
Other "features" of the Epic platform are that Epic allows opt-out suppression of negative ratings (and does not have user reviews at all), which they present in contrast to Steam not allowing opt-out for user ratings and user reviews, and that Epic does not allow developers to contact "content creators" (i.e. game reviewers) directly, but "handles contact on their behalf".
Oh Epic, the company of fractal shittery as every bit of their shit is made up of an even deeper level of even shittier antics.
I mean competing with Steam isn't actually that hard. Just offer pretty much the same capabilities without spyware, possibly with your own streaming/gaming video platform and patreon analogue, and charge a 25% (as opposed to 30%) commission. Everyone who sells on Steam will also sell on your platform simply because it doesn't cost them anything and is another market offering them a better price, studios will push people to your platform because it gives them a better cut, and offering influencers a cut of any copies sold to people who purchase through a link on their stream/video will have said influencers using your service in droves.
Instead Epic goes with massive spyware, pissing people off with paid exclusives, trying to gain market share through tons of free games, and generally being as anti-consumer as they can get away with.
Hell, Epic could have taken the Netflix route with Apple and simply removed all in app purchases via Apple and instead require that people buy "Fortnight buxxs" or whatever online on their own account. Just like Netflix, Epic is big enough that Apple would hesitate to remove the game and if they did then Epic would have a much better case to make.