Not really
steam has also changed collors as times passed¨
You used to own the games on steam oncee upon a time
now youre just renting them for lifetime
So if steam ever goes down you can say goodbye to a lot of games you bougth over the years there.

Eh, I guess GOG doesn't like money anymore. ;)

Yes, I listed a load of issues out in post 60. Its just all I see in this topic and in other threads on the forum is about Devotion. Out of the thousand or so reasons Devotion is likely quite low (considering everywhere has been cesored or has been at some point (wolfy in DE for instance).

Not necessarily.

If one believes that GOG and Steam are now becoming more or less the same (a store that sells both DRM and DRM-free games), it makes sense to buy on Steam because:
1) Games on Steam tend to be much cheaper (e.g. if you buy as part of a bundle on Humble Bundle, etc.).
2) Games on Steam tend to be more up to date (i.e. less likely to be treated as second class, or third class if you don't use galaxy)
3) Steam has a larger selection (probably even if you count only DRM-free games)

Because free speech(in games and elsewhere) is an important issue for a number of people.

And why is that? Because at it's heart censorship is about what? Control......control over what a person can express in a medium such as a game or film, irl or on the net.

For some, this issue is as or sometimes even more important then even drm free, as yes.....doing with one's property as they see fit is important....but without the freedom to express one's self creatively we might not even have some of the games/other media we have now, drm free or no.

So then tell me: in the end when all is said and done, how much would it matter if the forum issues were tackled or even if drm was removed for good everywhere, if there were no/few new games/films/etc because creators couldn't express themselves and make the things people want to enjoy?

If you think free speech exits now, or has done for quite sometime, then you want to check out anything on the internet. Free speech died with the internet, as did privacy.

Both still exist here and there, even if you choose not to see or believe in them.

As to the actually owning part - not what Steam says:
Thats still open pointing to you 'owning' your games in EU at least:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190920/09224543030/french-court-declares-that-steam-gamers-actually-do-own-what-they-bought.shtml
https://newtech.law/en/end-of-the-road-for-the-secondary-market-in-e-books-and-video-games/

No. Steam started out with all their games DRM-ed. So you always just rented your games there. They just some things in their TOS some time later, but they never pretended to be anti-DRM.
Actually, as far as I know, they started selling DRM-free games only later, after having been DRM- exclusive for a while. So Steam changed a bit in the other direction.
Steam started out as 100% DRM-ed store. Now they are slightly less on the DRM-side. But you still have to use their client, even to get their otherwise DRM-free games.
GOG started as 100% DRM-free. Now they are DRM-agnostic but really want to make everyone use their client. It's only a matter of time until GOG and Steam ate indistinguishable, except by size

Is steam upfront about what DRM any one game have?
Are they upfront about their deals with China?
Are they upfront their "games as a service" part?

So, convenience over principles?

No. Convenience over inconvenience. What principles does GOG have?

I stopped buying videogames in general. Can I have a pat on the back?

Snarkiness aside, no store meets my "moral" standards; when I'll buy, I'll buy directly from the source, or at least try to.
That is unless CDP drops the corporate bullshit it has been amassing for years, but I doubt it will ever happen.

No. But they are transparent that they are not transparent.
You know the deal you are walking into.
And, with years, the deal relaxed a tiny bit with the introduction of non DRM titles.

GOG, instead, started was something completely different (Good old Games) than just GOG, than we got this Galaxy client, than some game have some kind of DRM form (not clear upfront)...

Let's not forget about the whole "we will allow ‘everything’ on Steam as long as it isn’t illegal or ‘trolling’" promise not to long ago that turned out to be pure BS as a couple of weeks later they went on a censoring spree removing or censoring games (mostly Japanese ones) including some that had been sold without issues for months. And they still continue to do so today.

1.Reread OP post if you don't remember it's not only about this game.
2.It isn't (at all) about whether you like the game or not. It's about principles. Nobody forces you to buy it or anything. But people don't want to be forced to NOT HAVE A CHOICE nor even POSSIBILITY to buy it.

I perfectly know and understand it was to everyone. I merely expressed my personal statement. I specificly used word "personally" at the start of the sentence to differentiate on that I DIDN'T see your post at directed at me speicificly ;)

1.At least Steam never pretended to be DRM-free only to show it's true colors.
2.It's been said many times in many places, and perhaps you didn't come across the info, Steam has some hidden functionality that would allow the existence and running all games "post Steam death" should that ever happen. I don't know what it is specificly (as I'm not in deep enough relations with Valve higher-ups for them to share info of THIS magnitude) so I can only speculate. But I personally have seen cvars for example controlling offline mode and doing things not officially said. So it is safe to assume your games wouldn't be actually "gone" or "unplayable" should "fall of Steam" ever happen ;)

If that's all you see then perhaps a rest is in order for you (no offense, I say it out of caring and NOT trying to insult you) because people DO talk about other aspects every few pages (it's just that "THE GAME" is on most lips most of the time, but that doesn't mean people don't discuss other points).

Privacy never died. It's just that most people stopped caring. You can still have it if you WANT TO. Of course it doesn't come cheap. You will have to make compromises. But don't pretend it doesn't exist as that would put you in position of being seen as extreme ingornat or extremely uninformed.

As for free speech:
Please don't generalize SO MUCH.

Don't forget functionality coverage. If GOG cannot be bothered to even fix their attrocious forum CMS then it does speak loads about their attitude to platform quality.

Except for occasional mishaps (as the store pages are maintained BY PUBLISHERS generally with rare interventions from Valve [I do know that for a fact from talks with "higher than customer support" people]), yes, it is.
It states per game page if game has for example Denuvo. DRM-free games aren't unfortunatelly marked as such.
But generally, to some irony, Steam has far more clarity in that regard than GOG (GOG pretends like certain games it distributes DON'T contain DRM when they DO, while Steam states these things clearly except for when developer screws up the product card page).

Afaik there were public statements about that, and if not then there is still data for grabs from semi-official gathering. So I guess, yes?

It is stated in the TOS so yes.

No. Reread what was said.
If GOG looses it's core point of being DRM-free (the ONLY selling point for A LOT of us here) then at that point we may as well use Steam (those who don't already) as it has far more games, and in fact it may very well have far more DRM-free games than GOG.

I'm not defending them here or anything. But generally speaking we shouldn't be making assumptions without access to official reasons given to the developers in question (which are almost never shared to the public). There is rather high possibility some of those games breached Steam's content policy (Steam doesn't ACTUALLY allow "everything unless it's illegal". They DO have content guidelances).