I should have expanded on my last point more. It goes back to things I said in other posts. The assumption when seeing a cool game with workshop support on steam isn't that it supports them outside of it or is otherwise a convenient pirating experience because most games with steam workshop support use it exclusively to encourage people to purchase it on that platform vs pirating. Do you think that the average user will look into the forum of a game before purchasing it? No. I disagree with that assumption. I usually check the price, check the rating (very positive or better), checkout the screenshots and vids, read a few reviews on steam, and then finally consider what features it supports. If it supports steam workshop, I will check out what's available there before making a purchase. There's generally enough info on the steam platform to make an informed decision without relying on outside sources. That's part of its success, even for niche games.
Are we talking about the average user in general or the average user that buys almost exclusively from Steam?
I am fully aware how popular Steam is but I'm not sure you can assume that nobody consults other sources just because you don't.
Frankly, our experiences with Steam and steps we take before making the decision to purchase differ so much that there's not enough common ground for much of a discussion.
I mostly buy from Steam during big sales or if a game is only available there. Otherwise I browse their new releases in case I missed an interesting title but usually purchase from GoG or directly from the developer (Paradox, Matrix Games, whomever).
That's not to say that I'm opposed to Starsector being offered on Steam. I'm perfectly fine with whatever works best for Alex.
But the workshop... yeah... not a fan. If you absolutely have to put it on a dedicated hub for mods at least use the Nexus, although that one has issues of its own as well.
. Nexus is okay. You do get categorizations and ratings there at least.