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The problem is that GPG has to have a game first to distribute it that way. That's why they're going through Kickstarter to try to raise the money to make the game. As far as I know Valve/Steam don't fund external projects they just distribute them digitally which avoids a lot of hassles like physical copies of the games, boxes, self space, retailer costs, etc. Valve were successfull enough to be able to self fund their own projects and also create the Steam digital distribution network but they are very much unique in that aspect.

The traditional publisher model means that they loan the developer money to make the game which the developer then has to pay back from the 30% cut of the royalities they make. So for example with Wildman; GPG would have to sell enough games to pay back the 1.1 million dollar advance from the publisher before they start making money from the game.

As this article describes
http://games.on.net/2013/01/legal-opinion-why-are-draconian-publishers-driving-developers-to-kickstarter/ its even worst than that as publishers can have complete control over a game, can often subtract marketing costs from the developer royalities and even the power to terminate game development at any time. They can also sometimes insist that royalities a developer makes from one game is used to fund the next game from that developer.

Is it any wonder that we're getting stuck with so many sequels and their derivatives from a few successfull developers? Like Call of Duty and Pokemon. Even Dungeon Siege got to number 3 and Skyrim is number 5 in the Elder Scroll series.

Maybe this is why so many poor and bug ridden games are made, the developers are simply rushed into finishing an incomplete game or maybe their hearts aren't really in it. Perhaps the publisher model system is simply broken and on the way out considering how many have folded in the past few years. I know I'm using digital distribution networks like GOG and steam more now than buying boxed copies.