As the title states, I would like to voice my opinion that including borderline malware for people who don't want it is bad policy.

I've been a gog customer for less than 24 hours and I regret every second of it.

That's probably why they changed it. Now you can either choose to DL the off-line stand-alone DRM-free installers form your game page, or you can choose to install via Galaxy's web installer.

I use the GoG Downloader and never see it:

https://www.gog.com/downloader

We're already discussing this topic here:

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/forcing_galaxy_at_this_moment_is_a_terrible_idea

On most forums, it's usually a good idea to look first to see if your topic is already being discussed before you hit that "New Thread" button.

The possibility wasn't lost on me, but since the content of the post wasn't blatant trolling, I thought the benefit of the doubt was warranted.

I almost replied too. The only reason I didn't was because it seemed too complicated to explain. So I canceled. Then gave it some thought along the lines of today's impersonators and spam/abuse posting that happened during the previous few hours. Might not be related, but now I've gotten suspicious.

FFS chill. There's a massive sale and a giveaway going on, and of course new people are joining, and of course some of them are pissed about the same things we were pissed when they were first implemented.

OP: I don't know how you managed to download Galaxy without wanting to download Galaxy, The warning has been staring you in the face all the time. The regular ("offline") installers on the download page are Galaxy-free. If some aren't, please do report them to support.

You know what would be even worse policy? Including GOG Galaxy in installers. Or including GOG Galaxy in installers. Not as bad as including GOG Galaxy installers, though. The only thing worse than that would be to include GOG Galaxy in installers.