Who thought that? It has always been that way, and in the old steam you could change the address bar to any site you wanted.
No idea why you'd want to though.
Not for I. VT does force links to go through a proxy php script, so maybe just try copy pasting this direct link:
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/01/08/valve-to-have-large-gdc-presence-with-steam-machines-front-and-center.aspx
Those issues should be taken care of, but they aren't direct results of region locking. The region lock just means you can't avoid those issues now, so Valve needs to address those kinds of things. But the idea behind region locking in general is for the good of the service, and people who were...
That analogy makes no sense. If I pirated say, an Audible book, it would be because I hate their shitty DRM that doesn't let me listen to books my own way. Shitty services are definitely a reason for piracy, yes. But that's not what's happening here. Buying a Steam key for a cheaper price does...
But it's not functional compared to what you can do with this controller. Supposedly it is pretty good at mouse emulation, well enough to make RTS games playable as long as they don't require really fast and precise actions. Controlling a mouse with a normal analog stick is no comparison.
It's a really cool experience with a HOTAS and voice-activated commands.
I stopped playing the beta because there wasn't quite enough interesting things to do, and very little player interaction or ways to work with your friends. Also the whole dynamically player-influenced universe thing...