Obviously, we do not undertand politics that go on behind the scenes.

But it would be really nice of GoG staff to tell us if there is any change that Empire at War will receive further updates.
As of Januar 2021, there is a mod-relevant patch for the game on Steam. Before that, a mulitplayer-focused on.

Granted, the former might be Steam-API specific but why is the later not present here?

https://www.gog.com/forum/star_wars_empire_at_war_gold/will_the_steam_multiplayer_update_come_to_the_gog_version/post15

Yeah, but that thread's topic name is not selling the main issue properly

There are similar problems with many games on GoG, unfortunately. :( What seemed like a great idea at first, DRM-free games, it's becoming a cash grab - re-selling outdated versions, sometimes at higher prices.

You are way out of line. Yes, there is a number of games on GoG which get updates either late or not at all. However, this is A) a very small number and B) we have very little information in many cases why there is no patch.

There are documented cases where the developers have seemingly forgotten / abandoned the GoG version. Several in-dev games come to mind. There was also the utter disaster which was Ancestors: Legacy, where the devs took pre-orders but the game released over half a year later. In these cases, GoG is pretty blameless and aside from taking legal action behind the scenes (of which we know nothing), little can be done by GoG staff.

However, there are also other less positive-looking cases, that is for sure. One of them being Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, which had been missing patch 1.3 for a long long time on GoG. You can find the details here, including a statement by the developers. These three pages are a recommended read.

https://www.gog.com/forum/homeworld_deserts_of_kharak/when_will_the_130_patch_be_released_on_gog

For Empire at War, the situation is simply unclear. It could be that the Disney Overlords have decided not to bother, it could be that there is an issue inside the GoG teams, it could be some legal problem no one is allowed to talk about.

I would much prefer opinions stated on facts, instead of what is essentially a wild conspiracy theory belittling a DRM-free release of the entirey of GoG as a platform. Yes, I am not happy about the situation too, which is why I started this thread. But the negativity I am reading in your post up there is just not helping anyone. If you despise GoG as a platform that much, what are you doing in its forums?

Like everybody else, I guess, I'm hunting for information about the games I own, or plan to. And every time I get upset that such a great idea, like DRM-free, had to be implemented in such an incompetent manner:
- new releases are a gamble, they might easily end up not being supported (patched, maintain feature parity with other stores or even removed after a while - Wolcen, Armello?)
- apparently old releases, such as Star Wars - Empires at War, are not a safe bet either
- there's little information available on the games sold (version, latest patch, changes, future plans, etc) and given GOG's history with unsupported games you have to check lists and forum threads, basically you have to research what you're actually buying
- game requirements, at least for MacOS, are next to useless - maybe they fixed it meanwhile but when I was gaming on a Mac the specs were all incorrect and games did not work on the newer versions of the OS listed (even now I see Bionic Dues is no longer available for Mac despite the fact that I still have it installed on an older Mac laptop); By the way, I bought Age of Wonders III specifically to play on a Mac only to realize later that GOG is selling an inferior product (to Steam) and MacOS is not supported (so, again, you need to carefully check or even research what you're actually buying on GOG)
- they try to sell you DLCs or even games that you already have, for example you can buy in the same order The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Game of the Year Edition, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Expansion Pass and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine, if you're not paying attention you can buy the same DLC three times. This goes for lots of games where DLCs are double counted and listed as available to buy. Another example: Steel Division 2 - Total Conflict Edition has a bunch of DLCs listed, many of which are already included in that edition. Conveniently there isn't mentioned anywhere what DLCs are actually included, again, you have to research it. Games removed from store and added back, you can buy them twice as well if not careful.

There are lots of other issues with GOG, from the buggy (it still crashes often or loses functionalities) and super slow Galaxy client, the disjoined list of recommended games (I get recommended DLCs for games I don't have), the usually higher prices (no bundles for the base game + DLCs or ways to upgrade, e.g. GalCiv 3 or Ashes of Singularity), own library navigation, late release date (odds are you already have bought the game somewhere else by the time it is released here), etc.

So am I exaggerating when I say that GOG is a cash crab? Maybe, I'm not sure. After so many years they could have easily fixed many of their problems but they are putting almost no effort and continue to offer a subpar experience, they seem to just don't care. And it's a pitty. :(