Ok so here are the original system requirements for PC,

Windows 95
60 MHz Pentium
8 MB RAM (16 MB for multiplayer)
SVGA-compatible graphics card
2X CD-ROM drive

and here are the GOG requirements,


Windows 7 / 8.1 / 10
1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
2 GB RAM
DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
DirectX 9
1 GB available hard disk space

Why such a drastic difference?

Because you has to run a modern Windows version to get supported at all, and it has those requirements. Except for the 1GB free space, but that is because you will be downloading the game instead of getting it on a CD.

Yes but do you really need a 1 GHz processor and 2 GB of ram?

I'm guessing that might be DOSbox. Even if it isn't, they would have to tweak the programming to fit modern computers. Games back then were made around the hardware at the time. They wouldn't know what's happening when paired with multi-core CPUs, or GPUs with ray tracing.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-7-system-requirements-df0900f2-3513-a851-13e7-0d50bc24e15f

Since you are not even guarantied to have the system idling smoothly they can't promise you good game performance with anything less.

It's the same exe as was pushed out in 2001, if you have less then the mentioned specs then install Windows 95 and you should be flying. The game doesn't run in DOSbox.

Let it be this: it is for included GOG game Launcher+ddraw wrapper.

Although, GOG often show req. like that and later publishers use them to release outside GOG (Steam, Zoom and EA-Ubi-etc stores as well).