Christopher
Who are we to judge if your question is valid or not? For you it's a relevant question, for others it may not be so relevant, but It doesn't means it's not a valid question and you don't need to apologize.
As said above, the steam is not used to "dry" the clothes, but to remove wrinkles.
Also, as said above, it's all about marketing and how to get some extra money from consumer's wallets.
Steam works and really helps removing wrinkles, but nobody needs to spend a lot of money to do that. You can spray the clothes using a $1 spray bottle or don't spend a single cent and get an old silk scarf or a napkin or any small piece of thin fabric, soak it with water, squeeze with your hand and put it in the drum together with the clothes.
I don't know if the dryer has a "direct drive" motor, but this kind of motor is made only to reduce production costs (and make the consumers believe it's better)
These motors are as reliable as an standard motor but, if there's a failure, it's a nightmare to be fixed (nightmare to the consumers). and a wonderful dream to manufacturers. The worst case scenario is a worn belt... only $5 or less to replace
and the smallest malfuncion in a DD motor means the whole motor has to be replaced.
For those who like the spin noise (that's my case) there's only a small difference on the tone. a standard motor sounds like a jet engine, while the DD sounds like the subway. DD motor are less than 5db more silent than other motors. unless your ears are so sensitive that can hear a butterfly farting, you won't hear any diference on noise level.
I see no reason (unless profit) to have a DD motor in a dryer.
Here in Brazil Electrolux tried to use this DD "pancake" motor in a standard top loading machine. The market HATED it. (but electrolux loved it because the machine has no transmission, only a small magnetic clutch and costed 50% more only because of the DD marketing.)