Sort of: Popular game devs are generally good ones, interestingly. Take notch or Wolfire or any of the other small indie game studios. The non-quality stuff like "Angry Elephants 3 HD Knockoff Version!" comes from devs that also have no social contact.

Steam will still curate; this system only prioritized some games for review. It works a lot like the Steam Workshop.

As I read the page, this is in addition to whatever methods they have currently. A good thing.

Go Steam!

If your brand is based on strict curation, then accepting the union of the selections of your curators and popular demand removes that strictness. It didn't sound to me like they're accepting the intersection of the two methods.

The intersection of these two would be pointless. Even less stuff would get made. The goal of this is more money. Steam has proven sales way before the game is released.

Well, the original commenter might've thought that they were becoming more selective, or even just letting the community select titles for final consideration.