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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: 2) by MrGuy on Tuesday April 21 2015, @09:07PM
It's definitely something that's worth keeping an eye on - you're absolutely right this is one possible future state for this.
That said, I think it's unlikely, mostly because so much of the history of Valve and Steam seems to point in a different direction. Valve built steam with an impressive amount of vision before the market demand for such a service was really there. They've resisted highly-user-unfriendly policies, both for their own games and for third-party titles. They've revolutionized game pricing by getting publishers to sell back catalog games at a discount. They built an indie platform that actually seems to work.
Basically, they've been in this for the long haul, not the quick buck, since day one of creating Steam. They're the dominant player by far in this space, and I don't see them risking that for short-term gain. Especially since, as a private company, they don't have nearly the same "OMG we had a bad quarter quick squeeze all the revenue we can right now!" motivation that public companies do.