What if the DRM-supporters (shops like Steam or Epic..companies like EA) do change their politics and make a 180°-turn? Have you ever thought about the fate of a relative small internet-"address" like GOG.com in such global 100%-DRM-free-market?

Obviously it would close. Because it would have lost its purpose (offer a DRM-free alternative to videogaming) and it would fall to the bigger competitors.
And I would start buying on the DRM-free steam store, never forgetting the historical importance that GOG had for the DRM-free market.

I do understand your point, but I will be trying to be loyal to GOG.com, and I do hope you will make it like me.

And what if the sewing industry starts developing new pins which can hold even more dancing angels on their heads? What you're proposing, imo, will never happen. The publishers and even many developers refuse to relinquish control of the products they are selling. The gaming media as far as I am concerned is complicit in this scheme, and to top it off most customers lap all of this treatment up like farm animals at a trough for "reasons" like "everyone is doing it" and "muh conveeenience". On top of that I would posit that there is a whole anti-ownership push running through society, not limited to just gaming.

Most consumers never care as long as the game runs, true. However many do care when DRM inconveniences them, like install limits or performance losses. The issue in 2020 is that clients are beloved and add convenience, the opposite of what Securom did, and thus they are accepted. It is what it is, on that score. You can't tell the vast majority of PC gamers they're wrong to enjoy what they enjoy, so it's a dead issue. A battle already lost.

We can fight against stuff like the silly Denuvo kernel on Doom Eternal though, and win. It's a small comfort but I'll take it.

Wise words. We definitely cannot force the majority to choose or do that which they don't feel like doing or don't care about. And it's a fact that most people will rather choose the "fast & easy way out", regardless if such a decision may bite their ass in the long run.

Sometimes I wonder: in an hypothetical future - where GOG is no more and all gaming depends on some sort of DRM - if steam all of a sudden decided to change its business model and forced a 5$/month fee in order to play one's library of games (with the excuse of paying for "server costs" or whatever)... would people go along with it?

I'd like to believe that most of steam's customers would boycott the store and force valve to change its policy. But my pessimistic, pragmatical side tells me that most people wouldn't be willing to give up on their paid games and would submit to the monthly fee. Thus opening the door to higher fees and less customer rights.

But I shouldn't waste time being pessimistic. I still remember how, some years ago, so many people were saying that we'd never get Bethesda games on GOG. Whatever must happen will inevitably happen.

But what about new customers? I can imagine that would be great for Epic. (If they won't ask for such a fee in that hypothetical future.)
A monthly fee used to be a lot more common for online games (like WoW). Nowadays there's a lot of money in the "free-to-play" model.

You wouldn’t want to be teleported to the year 40k, trust me:
https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/The_Horus_Heresy_Book_One_-_Betrayal

Not sure if much can be done at this point. Most people lack foresight or don't value their purchases. Just hope that drm free stores like gog and zoom platform continue and provide for those that prefer to own their games.

if i could teleport myself to the year 40.000

but you'll still have to for star citizen to come out. 60k is where its at

Titans can fall, as we've seen with Atari, MySpace, AOL (effectively) and others. I don't think Valve would be that radical, as a replacement would be around the corner to lure customers in with no fee.

I do think Valve changing their business model or service in some way is the bigger risk though, rather than "shutting down." I say that with movie streaming on my film forum too, the bigger risk in my opinion is censorship or things like music replacement, rather than losing access. Can already see the video game form of this with songs being patched out from GTA style games. A ton of "insider" reports have said Gabe Newel is the one keeping Valve private and open platform focused. I think people should wonder what happens when he retires or otherwise leaves.

Though honestly everything will probably be streaming by that point anyway.

How amazingly diplomatic. ;-)

The guy is one burger away from exiting like Elvis.

And I fully agree, when Gaben goes, Valve gets floated. A few people become ludicrously rich, and Valve becomes a subsidiary of... my money would be on Tencent or Amazon.

I thank you for your support of DRM-free-policy, GOG.com and DRM-free-gaming-companies!!

well if it turns to garbage or becomes a sewer outlet i'd guess i backup all the steam games that run without the client
and take my losses.

This will save me a nice amount of cash which i won't be able to spend on hardware cause: monitors are flat, tv are flat, phones are flat.... dont ride any vehcle.

I don't have bad drinking habbits, smoking etc etc etc only gaming and watching movies on dvd which will stop
as well cause afterall there's Netflix, and PC will be gone cause we will all play in the cloud via a superfast internet thats all we use: internet.