Uninstalling steam due to steam update error

AS the title says, I uninstalled steam due to it getting a bad update(second time it's ever happend to me in my years of service) I'm under the understanding, steam does not delete save files and I have never ever had an issue with it doing that in any game I own,Regardless if it has cloud save or not. it doesn't delete your saves.

So I go to the steam games directory yadda yadda and open my Player file and it's empty... completely... Empty. everything gone. I'm talking my game saves from 1.0 launch on wards.. actual release... GONE. WHY?
Where did my save files go? If they are actually gone I'm done.. I know someones gonna say "you should have backed up your files noob w/e" but the fact is this doesn't happen to any game I have ever had on steam.

 

Welp... guess i'm done.. The game WAS fun... Dunno why this is the only game that has it's files deleted from simply uninstalling and re installing steam. all my other games are fine. pretty shitty IMO.... so many "wasted" hours now..