Since Commander Keen is still sold (on Steam), I'd be very careful with that statement.
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It's one of my favourite conceptual things about steam - games will never again cease to be available. Not only will I never lose my 'disc', I can still tell people about it in 20 years time and expect it to be purchasable by them.
> games will never again cease to be available
At least as long as the title in question does not invoke the wrath of Gaben, and steam stays up and running. Which is not really that strong of a guarantee.
I'm personally relatively happy with steam, but I fully acknowledge that it is not a long-term solution. I consider it more of a rental, which is fine considering the prices (I buy almost everything at -75%).
Oh crap, I thought about Steam and decided "nah, that's a safe example, they won't have it" :) I'm actually really happy that both Steam and GoG re-release those older games.
That brings up a very good point. You can't know what the IP holders are doing with their IP, or what they are planning. Just because you think some IP has been "abandoned" doesn't actually make it so.
Which brings up a question - would the IP holders re-release it if abandonware sites didn't prove it's worth their attention in the first place?