Rifles that went through a proper development period should shoot steel case or brass case without a problem.
Dirt in the chamber is a different issue.
A proper development period examines all the issues associated with pressure, extraction, case hardness, case clearance. Case dimensions and hardness are adjusted so that the case feeds and extracts. If you don't know, both the expansion of the case and chamber are calculated and adjusted so that there is clearance between at the end of the pressure cycle.
Rifles and cartridges that did not go through an appropriate development will have issues with case materials. The AR15 and 223 Remington are an example.
The .223 Remington was a wild cat developed by a bunch of guys at Bob Hutton's ranch. These guys did not have the analytical capability nor the money to thoroughly wring out all the variables of hardness, taper, expansion, pressure, etc. You can read all the issues they created here:
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/index.html
Report of the M16 Review Panel Appendix 4 Appendix 4 Ammunition Development Program.
Report of the M16 Rifle Review Panel Volume 7 Appendix 6 review and analysis of M16 System Reliability.
Report of the M16 Review Panel Appendix 5 Procurement
Report of the M16 Review Panel Appendix 7 Vietnam Surveys
Report of the M16 Panel appendix 10 the small arms program
Report of the M16 Review Panel Summary Report.
So what you read, in lots of posts on forums, is shooters having issues with steel cases in their AR15’s. That is all due to the cartridge being a wildcat and the developers not examining steel as a case material, and adjusting case parameters for reliable function.
You don’t read the same issues with 7.62 X 39 ammunition as the Russians intended to use steel case from the beginning.
So, older legacy systems that were designed with brass as the only case material may have issues with steel.