The Xbox and PS3 versions are still in the shops because they work properly right-out-of-the-box.
The PC version would have been better off without Steam - that way disappointed customers could get it refunded.
I'm actually surprised that nobody has filed a lawsuit yet.
The PC Version did work out of the box as well and even if the game wasn't tied to Steam you wouldn't get a refund once you opened the box because of the online registration process that certainly would have taken steams place. There is no way for a games dealer to check if the game has already been registered after it has been unpacked. Sure the game had and still has a couple of bugs but it doesn't mean that it is unplayable. And regarding todays games complexity there is absolutely no AAA game out there that doesn't have any bugs right after release.
A lawsuit would be quite difficult, because 1st you have to prove that the problems you're seeing have been caused by id Software, 2nd they have to have the chance to correct issues before being forced to take the product back, and they are currently working on it. If you take a look at the users complaining about errors making the game unplayable you'll quickly notice that the lions share has an AMD/ATi graphics card and are experiencing these issues because AMD/ATi AGAIN releases faulty drivers. So if you have complaints about faulty software I'd first take them to AMD/ATi because thats where the major issues originate from.