This solution sounds promising. Dawn of War 2 has had issues with NAT negotiation issues preventing friends from playing with each other and less severe cases of such causing irksome lag in-game. Demigod was a fellow sufferer of NAT negotiation issues in its early days, and in fact it suffered so much that the producer, Stardock, worked to implement a back-up system of "proxy servers" which worked much as Steamworks' "NAT reflection server" sounds like it will. Effectively, when players ran into NAT issues, they were routed through one of Stardock's provided "proxy servers", allowing the players to connect to the server (a much easier task) and thus allowing the servers to connect the players. That boosted Demigod's networking reliability supremely, so the basis certainly exists that Relic's and Valve's gambit will pay-off.
Lydell also went further in his claims as to the looming impact this could have, stating that NAT problems impact in-game connection quality and even matchmaking. If true, Steamworks may yet prove the major networking upgrade many players have long sought for the game. However, Lydell offered no details as to whether Steamworks will improve lag source detection and anti-drophack capability over Games for Windows Live's woeful offerings on those fronts. Given the NAT advancements though, such improvements seem likely as Steamworks seems to have a superior grasp of the inherent issues of P2P networking in an RTS.
Relic are continuing to prove that Retribution is a commitment and reward to the developer's fanbase, granting wishes and addressing issues. With "There is Only War", Relic proved it was willing to significantly rework its game in the hopes of improving it. With Retribution, Relic is proving that they are willing to partially rebuild the game to support it.
