Origin is actually fine. Not too intrusive, fairly lightweight and rarely has a problem. If you can remember back far enough to a couple of years after steam launched it was still buggy as hell with frequent loss of connection and other issues. Only thing I wish Origin would do is bin the 100 friends limit. Other than that I'm happy enough with it and I always max my download speed with it.
Never been locked out of my games by Origin in the absence of an internet connection whereas that happens to me with Steam all the time.
If it weren't for pirate cracks I wouldn't be able to play my Steam games (that I paid for) everytime I go offshore.