No Steam does not have "Softer" rules. There's all sorts of shit on DLsite that would never under any circumstance be allowed on Steam. That said, where Steam seems to get the reputation of allowing anything comes from the fact their rules are vague and inconsistently enforced, especially when it comes to japanese games, which tend to get hit with the bans and rejections far more. In comparison, all DLsite typically asks for is that the work follows Japanese laws, which basically means mosaics, black bars, or whatever to censor. Sometimes they do require more than the competiton (like DMM), which means bigger mosaics or whatever, though typically this only happens for certain loli content. But in terms of content, pretty much anything is allowed. There's a list of games that are banned or rejected that is consistently updated here:
You must be registered to see the links
. Even without the bias I still can't see Steam allowing a lot of the stuff that DLsite has on it.
Also, Ci-en wouldn't work for this because A.) Ci-en is owned by DLsite (or whoever owns DLsite), and B.) it still operates in Japan. As a result, Japanese law still applies. All it does is maybe reduces the chance of Ci-En noticing it isn't compliant or delays it. It does not however shield D-Lis from the rules or Japanese law and could end up hurting them if it is seen as trying to skirt around the law.
For somebody like D-Lis it makes no sense to try to get around DLSite's rules. By following DLSite's rules, DLSite is taking the risk, which is why DLSite is trying to err on the safe side. By trying to skirt around the rules, D-Lis would be taking more of the risk onto themselves. Perhaps they could release on DMM or fantia or whatever, but those still require mosaics or other forms of censorship and so it would only help if DLSite asked for bigger than usual mosaics or something. Those sites would most likely ask that the assets would be censored as well.
Ultimately, I don't know why you think they should try to get around the rules or law. At the end of the day, this is just a video game, an erotic one at that. I certainly don't get why D-Lis or DLSITE should put themselves at risk of several years in prison just so some people can get their rocks off to uncensored hentai.
