I haven't logged on to Steam or any other PC game store in years.
With digital movies or books I've been more willing to tolerate DRM but would much prefer not to.

Looks like GDPR account deletion?

I guess so! Maybe the admins wrote a script to mass-edit all of a user's posts?

I would if I could. While GOG is my main provider there are games that unfortunately aren't on GOG so I begrudgingly have to use something like Steam. I reeeeeeeaaalllllly don't like Steam.

And most of the times I have to find a "fix" to remove the damn DRM in said Steam games so whatever "convenience" it's supposed to have is negated by me having to find methods of removing the DRM.

And unfortunately GOG will always become a niche thing as practically every Steam-heavy user I know has some stockholm syndrome going on as they keep telling themselves that Steam is "better in every way" when in reality they refuse to admit that almost every game they purchased there has a killswitch built right in.

For me, I would always have backups of my floppy disks cause I would always get the 'disk in drive is not formatted error.' It turns out it was just different drives on different computers [magnetic alignment in media]. CD's were better. Games started having CDKeys, then games started coming with lots of CDs just to install and play (E.g., Neverwinter Nights XXX). DVDs were more of a convenience - less swapping and a chance of CDs being scratched or loss. Moving forward, just having a game install and play without being attached to a physical drive was nice. Having one without the use of a CDkey was nicer. Having DRM free game is best - provided it can still run.

I would try to buy directly from the developer themselves [online] as opposed to 3rd party distribution medium. I believe this would help support them the most. Next would be the actual physical media.

I believe when Blizzard started accepting your physical CDKeys for adding them to your digital library. This was great for me. Cause it was like, hey I've been a loyal customer... free digital downloads, don't mind if I do. Also having an email from the developers and promos sales is cool.

When it comes to AAA titles on PC, I find it cheaper to buy PS4/Xbox One console of GOTY editions for sale at local yard sales or flea-markets. They can be had for 3-5 USD ea or sometimes people sell a whole console with Lot of 10-20 games.

My AAAs on PC usually can be had for free. The scrooge I am usually waiting for Black Friday or holidays to pick a new graphics card or two, which might have a limited run promo of a digital coupon to download two (2) to three (3) upcoming games of your choice. I remember ordering a 260 USD card because of 99 discount was the best I could find in a new card at the time. Newegg did do the 99 USD discount, but there was some issue with the stock, I told I had to wait another week for a new shipment. My card should have been charged 160. I got an email from NewEgg - sorry about the inconvenience, they took another 99 USD off, so I only had to pay $60! Then I just had to wait for my free copies of DMC5 and Resident Evil 2 to be released. Retail, I believe these games were pretty expensive themselves when they were first released.

So I would go with graphics card promo (limited or fast selling stock promos like above can be beneficial) cause who wouldn't want a better graphics and free games. Then the developer support would be next. Physical used copies if they are unscratched and good titles (even though they would still be better on that new graphics card). And finally DRM free.

BTW. I don’t like background processes and services eating up my resources. I’m talking about you Steam and Razer. On another note, if it is just good ole local offline DRM-free gaming, then there is really no need to be bogged down with antivirus suites taxing your system.