It's really depends on the game. But Steam DRM is really really easy to remove, which is what most games have. Very few have third party DRM or Denuvo and they aren't coming here anyway except for the very few rare cases where the game release here but the denvuo was never removed on Steam. At-least with Steam you have up to date games and DLC.
You are 100% correct. Most games on Steam use Steam DRM so are easily DRM-freeable and Steam includes the benefit up to date DLC and games.

Whoa. Haven't seen you around for a while, if I'm not mistaken? Welcome back.

Yea I lurk from time to time but I'm not around that much anymore. I use Steam mostly now that I own a Steam Deck and got tired of double dipping on games. So GOG is more of rare buy for me these days.

See. That bothers me. Its like a lot of open-source tools where they say: "It's really easy to operate, but you got to be mindful of this and that" and then nobody wants to do it (even if the tool is really powerful and free like beer and speech). They just end up going with a managed equivalent in the cloud rather than doing the last 10%.

It's exactly the same for this. I guarantee you that less than 5% of Steam's user-base will bother with all those workarounds, because that's exactly what they are, workarounds. Fewer people than you'd like to believe have the stomach for those kinds of things.

The sad reality is that when Steam goes bust (and it might be after GOG, but I guarantee you they eventually will), the overwelming majority of their use-base will lose their entire collection (which they purchased like it was ownership, not rental like Netflix and Steam definitely profits from it like if it was ownership) and that's just wrong.

I'm very honest by nature and I will never, ever, endorse such a deceptive way to do things with my money. But you do you and I'll do me.

It's not as straightforward as a GOG installer, but it's not super complicated either. Steam usually tells you if the game has some kind of DRM other then Steam DRM. So usually, you will know before buy. And there are very easy ways to remove Steam DRM if the game comes with that (which is most). So essentially after that is done you simply need to make sure the redistributables are installed (easy enough as these are included in the game folder usually and steam has an install script you can look at to see what it was installing).
I'm just saying what is possible. What people do or don't want to do is up to them. As I agree most probably won't bother, but that's not my problem. I'm just concerned with what I buy and what I can realistically preserve if something happens to Steam vs the benefits of using Steam over GOG for most purchases.

I point out Goldberg and steamless doesn't work on lot of games. It's easy but dose not always work. I have about 500 games, and goldberg and steamless didn't work on a lot of them.

You might claim it is simple, but I'd still wager with a gun pointed to my head that less than 5% of Steam's use base is doing it, especially if the bar is to do it consistently for a large portion of their collection.

I read what mrkgnao posted about it diagonally in the past and its geeky territory. In my personaly experience dealing with developers (which tend to be a lot more tech savvy than your average everyday user), most people won't have the stomach for it.

And btw, that's why I also harped on GOG in the past for not making the process of backing up your collection simpler. The browser experience is ok when you have a small collection, but it doesn't scale well. If they were serious about their mendate to "make games last forever", they'd make backing up your collection a lot more user-friendly than it is right now (especially when your collection is large).

Agreed.

The sad reality is that the same is more and more true of much of GOG's user base too. Especially since the advent of galaxy has obviated the need to download those "backup" (synonym: "workaround") offline installers. Many newcomers to GOG don't even know what offline installers are.

Talking about deceptive practices, that is exactly what the big blue "download and install now" button vs. the hidden "offline backup game installer" link in each of our library game panels is.

There are much better ways/ tools but of course saying anymore would go against the forum rules.

Trust me I know about those tools. But at that point why even buy from steam if you want DRM free games. People wonder why things will not get better. Haha

Nevermind.

Up to date gmaes, all DLC, and of course some games may never come here. I'd never advocate for sharing games or anything like that. I just like to keep up way to preserve games if or when I need to too. Right now, Steam is a live and well and I don't need too.

I just need my games to last until I die, after that I don't care....

That's not what I mean, when I said why even buy from steam.
I can agree with you about the dying part. Lol.

Because I want to support developers and publishers and the creation of future games?

Well that's good. Not like DRM going to get any better.