I don’t think that Valve has that game plan, as they have proven again and again for about 20 years now. Having no shareholders really keeps them grounded. But you’re right, a completely FOSS solution that is easy to use would be preferable - but in the short term Steam communities might get an upswing.
Or just use Steam - which the average Discord user has already installed. Supports Chats, Groups, Voice Chat, Streaming, Discussion Boards that are discoverable, solid 2FA authentication… only thing missing is Video Calls, which they could implement easily when looking at what is already there.
I would have given Kristi Noem as an example. Fun fact: her full name is Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem
Well, Valve hasn’t done so for about 20 years now, how long do people have to give a company that has proven again and again that they are not in the game for extracting maximum value out of their client base? I’d love for a FOSS solution to pick up the slack, but none are currently in a state where they can pick up millions of non-technical minded users in a heartbeat. Valve has those users already, so they are able to provide a solution NOW, not in a few years.
Should Valve eventually start enshittifying, which would require going public first, maybe there will be a readily usable FOSS solution. For now, it’s one of the easiest routes out of Discord (and the content on the Steam Forums is scrapeable over the web, so it’s pretty easy to transfer out, not like discord)