What is going on?
If I start the game from the executable, it shows the Obsidian screen briefly, plays no sound, then crashes to desktop.

If I start the game from GOG Galaxy it works fine.....

What the heck?

I have no mods but I was trying to run some with the Patchwork Mod launcher and since it isn't Galaxy POE2 also crashes if it is launched this way.

I guess it isn't a huge deal since it does work but I'd like to know why.

I found a solution to the problem, though it might not work on your hardware.

There is a problem with Intel 10th-generation CPU's and onwards regarding some sort of calculation with the OpenSSL library.

You need to go create a new System Environment Variable in Windows:

Settings > System > About > Advanced System Settings > Environment Variables...

Again, it has to be a System Environment Variable (i.e. not User) that is set up as:

Name: OPENSSL_ia32cap
Value: ~0x20000000

Yes, the tilde (~) has to be there as well.

Afterwards, restart your computer, and it should launch as normal.

GOG Galaxy gets around this by setting this Environment Variable temporarily whenever you launch a game through the launcher.