So, can someone from Zenimax give a full explanation as to why early adopters with retail discs or digital purchases outside of Steam have no upgrade path?

There is a petition to raise awareness. There have been community post after community post complaining about this issue. And the only solution given is "Add it as a Non-Steam game" which is contrary to the entire reason we are asking for a Steam key. We want the Trading cards, the credit for the game on our profile, the easy library management Steam provides. Outside of gameplay, by offering the game on essentially two separate clients on the same platform does not create a consistent and uniform user experience.

If Gearbox can allow for a conversion path for an aging Borderlands, I believe that you can offer a conversion option for early adopters before a certain date, and eat a small loss, to keep a user base happy, and possibly double-down on future purchases because of the action.

Thank you in advance for your expeditious response.