Yeah, the main reason for steam at all in this case is to allow for steam link to work. Sometimes steam link falters when you point at An Origin game with steam. I tried it both ways last night and Sims definitely starts more smoothly with it installed via Steam, and even opens up way faster. Whereas, if I point to Sims as it exists within origin, it will still work, but within the steam link, you will see it opening other windows and switching around until it gets to Sims in 15 to 30 seconds. Further, if you click anywhere while that's happening, sometimes the focus gets lost and it won't start up properly.