I think Steam is more at fault here, all EA wants is complete control over their product. Personally I hate a few things about Steam, like the auto patching which sucks for some games like Just Cause 2 (can't use the Bolo Patch, best mod for the game) and others. Also waiting for some patches like in CoDW@W was horrible for some of the guys in my clan. Besides its all trivial, I wouldn't miss the chance of playing one of the best games this year over something like that, I'm a gamer I play games, not overlays.
That said Valve wants EA
back and personally I wouldn't buy it on Steam anyways because having to go open Steam, then Origin to play a game is just cumbersome. And competition is good.