I would guess the conversation went something like "hey we allow some DRM'd aspects now as long as the entire core singleplayer experience is DRM free," and then IOI said "well the story mode is able to be played completely offline" and then GOG said "great, we'll take it!" How much GOG understood was missing offline can be debated, malice versus ignorance and blah blah blah, but I doubt that conversation was incredibly obsessive and as in depth as people here imagine it to be.

I would have to disagree. Unless you've played the game before or have seen it being played, you'd have no idea that there are singleplayer features missing. I am saying this since even i didn't know till 2 days ago and went to check what people were saying about the game. So no, i wouldn't put the blame fully on GOG and their staff. They are to blame for not doing more extensive research but IO Interactive are the one who made the game this way.

Why should anyone? IOI released the game 5 years ago and it has been online-only all those years without anyone here complaining much.

The problem now is not the game itself. The problem is GOG releasing it here. And that is entirely on GOG's shoulders. They decided not to say "no" to DRM.

The game can be played offline AKA DRM free. Let's not warp things up. The issue is that there are missing singleplayer features.

A "curated drm-free store" should know that

This is a good point.....this situation, if little else, brought a number of us together and onto the same page.

Denial isn't just a river in egypt, and cognitive dissonance can be a helluva thing sometimes.

As you and I both know, a fairly small portion of the game can be played offline. Only the story/bonus missions and each with only the default loadout, which is exactly the opposite of what most people would want to do in a sandbox game where you are supposed to (from the game page):
"Experiment and have fun in the ultimate playground... with everything from a katana or a sniper rifle to an exploding golf ball or some expired spaghetti sauce".

The store is managed by people and people make mistakes. Do you honestly think that the person who was making sure that the game was running DRM free played the game in its entirety or simply tested till he was half trough the first mission and said to himself ''my job is done everything works'' ? I'm not sure that there is any other game that incorporates DRM the same way this Hitman game does. I personally have never encountered anything like this before. Do you know of any other game that uses similar type of DRM? I don't and the closest thing i can think of is Diablo III that is always online(even in singleplayer).

Several days of Hitman on the store.

User pushback on its drm

Still overwhelmingly negative.

Only two staff (blue) posts so far.

Blaming said users for having a valid point of saying it doesn't belong on GoG because of the drm it has.

Over 1000 forum posts and counting.

YouTube comments and ratings turned off for said game.

Having online articles about this.

You seem to be having a bit of a rough time huh GoG. Good. It's what you get.

Sensible people who make mistakes:
1) admit to having made a mistake, which GOG hasn't, not here, nor with any other "mistake" of the past
2) attempt to fix those mistakes, which time will tell in this case, but has never been one of GOG's strong points, to put it mildly
3) do not accuse people who point out these mistakes with "bombing"

GOG shows no signs that indicate it made a mistake, therefore I see no reason to assume it is a mistake. As a factual person, you should perhaps ask yourself why you think this is a mistake.

you don't even need to play the game, just do a little research and you will know what type of drm it use.
Also when you do 1 offline mission and 1 online you will notice the difference.
there are 2 possibility:
1. They don't even tried the game to see if it was drm-free. Not even a little research with google.
2. They just knew and accepted it like it was ok.

Anyway the could remove the game Friday if it was a mistake. Why it is still on sale?

I am not spinning, i simply like to be rational, factual and have a productive conversation that would lead to the game being fixed. It is a bad look and i agree that the game in it's current state doesn't deserve to be sold at full price. What i don't agree is with some of the troll and toxic posters here who don't seem to want the game fixed and just want to see this place burn.
No idea. I have no idea about the contracts that GOG makes with companies in order to sell their games. It is quite possible that for GOG to take down the game they might have to pay IO Interactive a certain sum as damages. That is why i keep telling people to go after IO Interactive but nobody listens to me. Drag IOI trough the mud, make them squirm and they could easily provide a fix on their end. The question is do you want the game fixed or do you just want to run a hate train on GOG.

(start at 7:03)
https://youtu.be/-J12zTCrF1U?t=423

(gog should not sell drm games, if they accepted this game here it's their fault).