Can confirm that the off-line installer does not seem to have been updated properly. According to the log it wants the steam launcher, but it also doesn´t run when that is present (I even tried adding the game to the steam library).
chevkoch: I heard back from GOG support today. They said they tested version 1.1 on Windows 11, where it works fine. Thus, at least in my case the theory of it being a not-cleaned-up Steam build seems not the reason for the game not launching. Maybe you wanna contact support yourself to hear what they are saying in regards to Wine.
It seems to me that they may have been testing the galaxy version, not the archive downloaded from the website.
Downloadable version still does not work, version installed through heroic launcher (which is identical to the one that the galaxy client fetches) does. Funnily enough, one gets a bit of galaxy client cruft added into the wine prefix with the version that does work. Not sure if that is because heroic adds it to get it running or whether the game installer came with it.
Regardless, at the moment I consider this game to not be drm-free.