What are these zero gear statistics? If those playing with a warezed game online are being shown as legit on the steam stats, then in a way they are helping Valve with their site surveys arent they?

DRM aside, people need to play the game before they write reviews... There's too many people that don't play through the game before reviewing. Yes, there are some changes that make the game worse than Civ IV, but Civ V is still a great game.

Haters need to play.

Well, I don't need to try Steam out to know I'll never buy from them. I can still play Dungeon Keeper and in 5-6 years when my daughter wants to maybe play, she'll be able to as well. 15 years after a Steam release you really don't know that that'll be possible, and in reality that's sad. I won't "vote" for that kind of thing by financially supporting it and will encourage others to do so as well.

With that said, I did not downvote Civ 5 on Amazon.com, but I have downvoted things due to serious DRM issues (Spore is a great example). I stated that was my reason for doing so in my review and suggested that some people would have no issues, but for the ones who did they could be a real pain.

And, honestly, the DRM does matter and affect the quality of the game. If Amazon.com mailed me a game with a thrashed box or a hard drive with no padding, I would note that in my review as well.
I'd play if I could do so without Steam, even with a boxed purchase they have not given me that option.