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A support post on SteamPowered.com shows that Valve are planning to restrict Steam account functionality of anyone who's spent less than $5 directly through Steam:
We've chosen to limit access to these features as a means of protecting our customers from those who abuse Steam for purposes such as spamming and phishing.
Limited users are prevented from accessing several features on Steam, including but not limited to: Sending friend invites; Opening group chat; Voting on Greenlight, Steam Reviews and Workshop items; Participating in the Steam Market; Posting frequently in the Steam Discussions; Gaining Steam Profile Levels (Locked to level 0) and Trading Cards; Submitting content on the Steam Workshop; Posting in an item's Steam Workshop Discussions; Accessing the Steam Web API; Using browser and mobile chat
You will need to spend at least $5.00 USD within the Steam store. Some examples of purchases that grant access to these features are: Adding the equivalent of $5 USD or more to your Steam Wallet; Purchasing game(s) that are equal to $5 USD or more from the Steam store; Adding a Steam Wallet card to your Steam account; Purchasing a Steam gift that is equal to $5 USD or more from the Steam store (Receiving a Steam gift from a friend doesn't count)
Using serial keys to activate retail purchases on Steam will not count towards your account value, neither will activating Steam keys obtained from 3rd party websites (e.g. Humble Bundle) or games gifted to you by other account holders.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 21 2015, @08:35PM
I wonder why retail purchases won't count. I can kind of understand why things like Humble Bundle wouldn't count (as you can get keys for cents), but if the intent is to make more hurdles for spammers then retail purchases will effect that too.
(Score: 2) by wantkitteh on Tuesday April 21 2015, @09:24PM
See above - plus the value of retail purchases is harder to accurately determine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 22 2015, @04:31AM
Below a certain threshold, even retail keys become disposable. I think that retail purchases are disallowed because steam has no way of knowing where you got the key. For example, did you get the key for free with a piece of hardware? I that case, someone buying the hardware in bulk in one market, removing the key and reselling in a different market could get them 'free' keys. Is it a discounted or discontinued key? Was the key stolen?
When you spend money directly with Steam, steam knows that you stand to lose (at least $5) if you misbehave. This probably will not stop individual troublemakers from abusing the system, but it will stop institutional abuse. And I think that is the point of this.