I don't know... It's possible? Sure. It's even likely that we would still get to enjoy the company of many Goggers that simply left as the community turned to worse. A smaller community would have held tighter and take much longer to change.
But it's also possible that by now Gog would have closed shop and we would all be left wondering if they shouldn't have accepted games that need authentication for their MP while remaining DRM-free in SP. Speculation can only lead us so far because we have no way to be sure if any of those theories would come true.
That said I get how you feel disappointed on Gog and less inclined to buy. A pity, really.

If you say that's the case I can't refute it as I know next to nothing about the variety of VNs available here compared to elsewhere, except that Steam has boatloads of VNs (of wildly varying quality, I suppose). But I picked VN just as an example because I know those are games you enjoy. The crux of my argument is that... well, according to your profile you have more than 1200 games. Certainly several of them are games you like and wouldn't be here if Gog had remained the small speck of dust from years ago. Isn't that right?

Aye, for sure. There are plenty of games I like, and some of them are fairly recent additions.

I think I get the point you're making, but all the games in the world mean little to me if I only get them in exchange for compromising on other things that I consider important. Even though I have a lot of games, my life doesn't really revolve around them. If some title I really want isn't available on GOG, I'm sure I could get it elsewhere if I cared enough. But I don't even care that much if I miss some great games altogether.

"What is DRM?

Digital Restrictions Management is the practice of imposing technological restrictions that control what users can do with digital media. When a program is designed to prevent you from copying or sharing a song, reading an ebook on another device, or playing a single-player game without an Internet connection, you are being restricted by DRM. In other words, DRM creates a damaged good; it prevents you from doing what would be possible without it. This concentrates control over production and distribution of media, giving DRM peddlers the power to carry out massive digital book burnings and conduct large scale surveillance over people's media viewing habits.

If we want to avoid a future in which our devices serve as an apparatus to monitor and control our interaction with digital media, we must fight to retain control of our media and software."

https://www.defectivebydesign.org/what_is_drm_digital_restrictions_management

According to some definitions here the following situation wouldn't be a DRM mechanism.

Think about buying an ebook in a certain format. The text is delivered without the letter q. You get the letter q when you go online just one time. Then the text is complete.

It's not DRM because the relative frequency of the letter q is just 0,095%, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_frequency

And you can read the text without the letter q. You don't need the q to understand the text. Nope. That's not DRM. It's just the q.

Really? This is the thing that some people are constructing here. What will happen when they start blocking the a, e, i, o, u?

From the descriptions here I see that this game IS a damaged good. And of course, when you go online with the game they can easily surveill your habits. Data Mining, Big Data, Neural Networks/AIs. It is everywhere now. Intention or a bug. This should be fixed.

Anyone notice the FCKDRM site no longer functions? That about sums up the direction GOG is heading.

Works for me, got to see gage talking about his drm free system!

Perhaps they should call it FCKdrm (exclusions apply).com

Well the damn site will not load in Australia at all, I guess that means it's been georestricted... that's some palpable irony.

The site still works. They just should remove GOG from it.

Site works, if not try tor browser, or any other vpn redirection, or your imagination.

then then
Why buy on GOG.COM?
DRM FREE. No activation or online connection required to play.
Safety and satisfaction. Stellar support 24/7 and full refunds up to 30 days.

The truth is in here. I am an empiricist, I trust in experience.

"I see," said the blind man, as he picked up his hammer and saw"

Game is 50%off, https://www.gog.com/game/no_mans_sky

Is single player and single player updates(after installation) still bound to internet connection?

Does multiplayer require an internet connection for any reason other than connecting players?

Time to test it offline for 7 days. Fun!

edit: got it, png attached, I really appreciate "Experimental" label in a list of files to download. Gog is safe for me that way : )

The game works completely offline except for one thing - the quicksilver shop doesn't properly unlock items (at least that was case until 3.0.2. - if the patch fixes this it has yet to be confirmed).

This not unlocking prevents you from getting - among a ton of collectibles and purely cosmetic items - to get the Void Egg.
If it's unlocked, to get the Void Egg you need a lot of quicksilver, which can be either mined from exceedingly rare Space Ice, or - which is quicker - do community missions which are tied to MP being enabled. Either way a certain amount of grinding is required to get it.
Once you get the Void Egg, a long set of missions - all single player - is triggered with a Living Ship as a reward.

Afaik, to fully unlock the shop you only need to go online once. After that the game works offline again. Or you can hack the savegame (and while you're at it, give you enough the quicksilver, bypassing the grind).

Does not. You don't even need to start a new game, just run NMS without galaxy open and watch quincy reverting the items.

As I said, that was a hotfix for a general problem, not for offline installers.

LOL, THAT WAS GOLDEN.

It's not as bad, but indeed there is no need to cut those items for SP, considering that we can access the anomaly just fine.

Does no matter if it's one time online. Still a form of DRM.

Yep, that is definitely still DRM.

No DRM = no activation, no phone home, no disc checks, nothing. No strings attached period.

01. You buy a game.
2A. If game is bought from digital distribution (such as GOG) - Download installers and then install.
2B. Or if it's from disc (i.e. old-school style from retail box with discs), you install right off the discs.
03. Boot up and play with no strings attached period.

I didnt say True DRM is something you cant circumvent
I said it was hard to pull off or in a few cases impossible

I dont really see a case of DRM here
since the devs have left the door to the house open (Modding)
They coud have aslo handed us the key personally wich had been supported Modding but they havent.
If the devs had not abled us to edit the save file then i had completly agree with you but they havent.

Thats just speculations
Also, theres plenty of games that newer was intented to be fiddled with
yet here we are in the year 2020 with plentifull games that have enchanced grapics, bug fixes, features etc and plentiful other stuff in 2020 thanks to modding

Fair enough, but what you are saying is that no DRM is there simply because you can use modding to circumvent it. It's a bit of a contradiction, though I get what you are trying to say, I do.

Imagine the following: a developer let's say ties multiple aspects of a game to an online check system, but also releases the source code for the game, leaving players the ability to remove those bits if they wanted to. Does it have DRM? I would say yes, the base game has DRM, even though someone from the community will have the ability to get around it.

Is it a tyrannical form of DRM we're seeing in NMS, like Denuvo? Obviously not, but it still is a form of content locking, albeit minor and within a player's ability to circumvent. It still is what it is, regardless of that, unless they fix it in the base game.