Some people simply lose their Steam passwords and also lose the email with which they signed up such that they can't even change it. The same thing happened to me with a Facebook account: if I try and log in, it sends a verification code to an email address which doesn't even exist anymore.
That was the case with one of my close friends - very much still alive - who now has another Steam account that is only like 1-2 years old, instead of ten to fifteen years inactive. So one doesn't always have to fear the worst: the person might still be a Steam user who has simply long been using an account about which you have no idea.
Some people simply lose their Steam passwords and also lose the email with which they signed up such that they can't even change it. The same thing happened to me with a Facebook account: if I try and log in, it sends a verification code to an email address which doesn't even exist anymore.
That was the case with one of my close friends - very much still alive - who now has another Steam account that is only like 1-2 years old, instead of ten to fifteen years inactive. So one doesn't always have to fear the worst: the person might still be a Steam user who has simply long been using an account about which you have no idea.
Ironically, that happened to me and I used my physical copies and their keys to get the account back.