Steam choose to bend the knee, true, but that doesn't mean they had to. Do you know of any businesses which has actually been blocked by VISA/MasterCard over this? Their strength lies in throwing their weight around discretely, without having to actually go through with it.
If Steam had just ignored them, I don't think they would actually have blocked Steam. Most likely, nothing would have happened. Steam is simply too big. But even if you don't believe that, can we at least agree that Steam is big enough to have done at least something? Posted a protest banner, anything? You assume good faith, believing Steam only bent their knee after a long and painful soulsearching, but another possible scenario is that Steam management simply not cared all that much, and chose complience.