Steam Refund Policy

Given that these refunds do not automatically get released at the point you apply for a refund we can assume there what is most likely happening is a mix of a bot and human interaction.

The steam refund policy states:

Where Refunds Apply

The Steam refund offer, within two weeks of purchase and with less than two hours of playtime, applies to games and software applications on the Steam store. Here is an overview of how refunds work with other types of purchases.

What we can expect here is that this is picked up and looked at by a bot to make sure that once someone applied for a refund that you meet the 2 hour game time and less than 2 weeks old. Given the handling of refunds and money, that'll be passed over to a finance department to give final approval to release the funds.

In your situation I don't see why Steam would give you a refund, the ingame time will be over the 2 hour period and regardless of if you did something or not this isn't something steam will actually track so for argument's sake it won't be a factor in their decision. I'd suggest just taking this as a life lesson and next time you need to rush out alt+f4 or power the machine down.

It's most likely a bot that does it initially. My reasoning is that the Steam return policy of "Played less than 2 hours, owned less than 2 weeks", can easily be done by a bot and people are probably returning hundreds or thousands of games a day. However, it is possible to contest a refund decision at https://help.steampowered.com. You can try that, but I wouldn't be holding my breath.

Source: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4873-QOSK-5126

Occasionally, Steam will relax their usual "2 hours, 2 weeks" return policy for specific purchases. Some of them include:

• Refunding a bundle of games. (This typically extends the amount of time you can play on one game before Steam refuses your return). I had this experience when I bought a bundle containing 3 games, played one of them for 3 hours, and then was able to return the bundle without any problems.
• The game has widespread problems and/or backlash. An example of this is the initial release of "No Man's Sky".