I believe you're referring to the stub they included during beta testing of the given games in question. It is my understanding that those will be removed at a later date as I've seen several GOG employees comment to this effect and have zero reason to believe it will be otherwise and that is good enough explanation for me - I have no conspiracy theories about GOG nor do I doubt their agenda is anything but pure and in good faith.

It is my understanding that games that have Galaxy multiplayer built into them as an option do not require one to use it nor to use Galaxy in order to install or play the single player game, or to use any other options of the game that do not directly use Galaxy multiplayer functionality. If one does want to use Galaxy multiplayer then it stands to reason that one has to be online to play their game online with someone else using it as well, and so you need to be connected for that just as it says in the video in the same way you have to plug your phone into the phone jack if you want it to ring when someone calls.

All of the things you said you do not want are optional as they've stated all along. It's possible that due to the beta right now that something might not be implemented in a way to one's satisfaction yet but this is indeed a beta and not a reflection of the final result. If things are not 100% to what GOG said they will be it is essentially because it is not finished yet and one can then choose to trust GOG on their word knowing full well that when the time comes if they do not honour their word that people will be very upset and they will get bitten by people's reactions - or one can choose to distrust them completely and do so all the time at every turn in which case I have to wonder why someone who thinks that way even bothers to do business here at all and constantly chide them with distrust endlessly. It gets tiring reading that all day every day in one thread or another, it's as if Alex Jones lives here cloned 100 times.

As for Galaxy being visibly advertised on the website right now that really should be of no surprise to anyone. GOG is not forcing Galaxy on anyone, nobody is obligated to use on it, but in no part of that social contract is anything stated that they have no right to advertise the product that they have worked so hard and continue to work hard on. This isn't something they're whipping up to please a small subset of users and hide from everyone to not offend people that aren't interested in it. It is something they're doing with the goal of providing an optional brand new experience to people that many people out there do want and that GOG is happy to be working on and they do want people to know about it and they're proud of what they're working on and they should be. Even though it is only a beta right now and rough around the edges, they should not in any way feel guilty about advertising it or getting the message out there to the masses, and right now is the best possible time for a business like GOG to put that message out there.

The Witcher 3 launch is tomorrow and the site is being swamped by zillions of new customers, and many of them WILL want something like Galaxy when it is a completed polished product, and they want everyone out there who comes here to be aware that it exists. It is the perfect marketing opportunity and they would be dumb ass stupid to not use this opportunity to let people know about their product. It is a smart business decision that has no evil behind it and is just good common sense marketing strategy. They would be completely foolish to NOT get the message out there widely right now - regardless of whether the product is ready or not. It's mindshare. It's important that people hear about it.

People who don't like Galaxy or don't want to have anything to do with it or don't want to see it and want to hate on GOG for trying to market their product to their target audience IMHO are really being selfish and callous. Use AdBlock Plus or some other browser addon and remove the parts of the web pages that you don't want to see if it is that bothersome really. Or if it really truly bothers anyone to a deep fundamental level who thinks it is evil or some other conspiratorial nonsense and has complete distrust of GOG for Galaxy or anything else they try to do for the greater good - then stop shopping here, delete the bookmarks and forget they ever existed.

They could literally do anything to try to "prove" to any given person or subset group of customers that their intentions are 100% genuine and in the interests of their customers and wider community - and someone out there can still choose for any sane or insane reason to think "I don't trust you", and no matter what GOG could ever possibly do, someone can always continue to think this way. It is a completely losing game - they can never ever prove something that someone just chooses whimsically to not believe out of distrust and paranoia.

I really wish all the people who constantly bash GOG endlessly with all their distrust would just leave the site and never return sometimes because it is constantly draining. GOG could do 99 things right and do one single thing wrong completely by honest mistake or misjudgment and some people will forget the 99 things right ever happened and blow the one honest mistake way out of proportion and use it as a basis to burn them like a Salem witch forever, bringing it up over and over again at every chance.

It really gets tiring all that nonsense. Personally I hope they turn every square inch of the entire website into a big Galaxy fapathon for 96 hours straight to try to trip some people over the edge to just go away so the rest of us could enjoy some peace for 5 minutes sometimes.

In closing, I'll admit that I'm having a bit of a rant about this and that it's certainly not all based on what you just said, but rather on a constant buildup of reading so much hostile negative energy day in day out from so many people in these *cough* "friendly" forums here, repeating the same old same old viewpoints that wont change until they've seen "proof" to their satisfaction of something that ultimately is completely unprovable because GOG can always "do something different in the future".

I'd almost pay money to see a single day dedicated across the whole site where every single person is required to either speak nothing but gratitude for what they are happy about, what they think GOG has done that is great, express thanks to them for stuff, and leave the hostility and constant distrust at bay even for just one day or even one hour.