Hi Zec,
From my timeline above, you can see I have every version of Trainz produced by Auran/N3V for the PC. All bought directly from your company. I have also had every version released under Steam as well as many add-ons purchased through Steam or directly from the Trainz Store.
Frankly, I have always preferred using the Steam versions since they have always been vastly superior in the handling of add-ons installations and removals. You have to admit that until the addition of the in game store of TRS19 Platinum that adding and removing add-ons in earlier versions or the retail builds was clunky at best and down right impossible in some cases.
As for the effort to produce a beta test build for Steam, I know first hand that it was worth the effort in the past as I personally took part in that testing.
William