cm0002GamingOnLinux: Fedora Linux devs discuss dropping 32-bit packages - potentially bad news for Steam gamers
SuperIceDoesn’t Steam run basically everything, including the client itself, inside the Steam Container Runtime now? No Steam games, native or not, use the system libraries anymore. I know I occasionally need to wait a couple of seconds after an update for it to update the Steam Container Runtime before even starting the client, which makes me think that they run the client in the container as well. I think the only real 32-bit dependency it has on the system is the user space graphics driver.
including the client itself
What makes you think that?
Through some script sleuthing, I did discover that Steam ships several of its own 32-bit and 64-bit libraries, and that paths to both are added to LD_LIBRARY_PATH (search path for library files) when the client is launched by the Steam Runtime, but many files (specifically the Steam Runtime) are only present as 32-bit binaries in ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32.
Whether the Steam client uses those is a question someone else less sleep-deprived can answer.