.. dollars in legally purchased software ...
A pretty common misconception with Steam.
You never buy anything on Steam, you more or less rent access until they choose to close your account such as by changing EULA to something you don't want to accept and suddenly it's all gone (ok if only blocked from new purchases, but that's not the case).
Naturally, losing access as in first post this thread and not being able to prove your cause will endup in the same loss.
Not finding this an OK approach is very often misinterpreted as "steam hate" for a reason I still cannot identify.
Look at the numerous posts in Steam related threads at BIS forums and you'll see "defenders" stating "It has always worked with no errors for me" making it obviously clear they don't understand the user terms.
Anyhow, good luck with your process - you might need it.
