Steak is a muscle. Bacteria needs air. If air could get into muscles, we would not need blood or lungs. Almost all illness, from the beef side, comes from hamburger because generally 100% of the meat in hamburger is touched by air while it is cut up. Steaks INSIDE are medium at 140 degrees. The outside is cooked well done, or even beyond(hence the char) by the time the inside gets to 140. This does not mean you can cook the bad out of any steak. make sure your steak is fresh, cut in a reasonable amount of time before offered to you, and does not have any weird slices though it.
Salt is a mineral, literally a rock. You can salt as early as you want when it come to grilling because salt does not burn away. In fact, salting early and letting the meat sit with the talk on it for a couple of minutes will promote browning on the meat, leading to the crusty, grilling flavored meat you're setting out to make. Black pepper is a plant, and I know it is always "salt and pepper this and that" but when it comes to grilling at temperatures in excess of 600 degrees, wait and put your pepper on a minute before you take the meat off. The heat of the meat and the juice that will come from it will take that pepper flavor and do its job. One exception: This does not apply to marinades or sauces, as the liquids will suck the heat away and prevent this from happening.
Identifying good, cheap steak cuts at the super market is hard on purpose. If you read print media, you'll not find journalists down from their pedestal into the every day people's section of the meat department. The super markets know this, so while sometimes you'll see "stay away from chuck steaks" in magazines, the super market will hide it in local jargon or regional names. Many cuts have different names and this too is capitalized on. The tri-tip is seen as humble in Texas, but is known to be an even cheaper alternative to filet minion than Top Sirloin is. In a super market in Texas I've read that you'll find tri-tip over by the chuck steaks in normal packaging, cheap price, and generally just trying to look like its not all that great. If you go to California you will find that tri-tip is re-named "Santa Maria", packaged in the "black label" packages, and sitting right beside the filet minion. Also, don't forget that a lot of what is labeled as "steak", is actually roast trimmings that are too small to call roasts. They are typically in the roast section, if that's a hint. This is grill season, stay away from that section for grilling. More steak tips; let a steak rest. Think of steak as a sponge, and your hand as heat. If you cook well done, you're going to squeeze all the juice out and never get it back. If you cook to medium you'll push a lot of the water to the center. Letting a steak rest gives the juice time to redistribute back out into the meat because the pressure of your "hand" isn't pushing it anymore. It will look like a little bit of juice gets on the plate, but its nothing compared to slicing into a steak right off the grill, it'll "pop" like a balloon and ALL the juice will flow out.
Unhealthy but good: melt some butter. When your steak is resting, brush it with the butter. The steak juices will mix with the butter and create a tsunami of umami, the savory flavor. This is a common practice in higher up restaurants, because that butter mixed with steak artificially creates a boost of savory similar to aging steaks for long periods of time.
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