Hallelujah. I don't know why so many companies went down this route, particularly when it's not the likes of Ubisoft or whatnot with their own desire to half-ass the attempt at making their own Steam. My guess for its removal is to better support Steam Deck, perhaps?
- Keeps users in their wallet garden. Marketers love shoving shit in users faces whenever they launch the game. Inside the game it's bad for. To advertise whatever other garbage there is, on their launcher they try to grab your attention for their other crap
  
  But see, that's the thing. They're just as capable of putting those ads in game too. I definitely would have more visibility on the ads just at the title screen than I would on a launcher I'm clicking through as fast as humanly possible.
  
  .......wallet garden? So....like a garden where they grow wallets for you to eat?
  I mean, if that's in your taste palate, bone apple tea, I guess....
- Even CD Project Red added such shit. Instead of directly launching Witcher or Cyberpunk I now have to go through a(nother) launcher now. Pointless.
  Baldurs Gate 3 needed one from the beginning as well.
  I don't get it.
  
  use --launcher-skip start argument for CDPR games
  BG3 also has the slightly different --skip-launcher
  
  Some games include launchers for practical reasons. Launchers allow you to change settings before having the game up, for example, which can be nice. They also sometimes can do mod management, though this is less common. Paradox does mod management through the launcher, for an example of that.
  Usually the launchers suck though and only slow things down, but you can also usually use an argument to skip them.
- Data. Simple as.
  
  What data? Surely the game itself would be just as capable of transmitting that.
  
  The game can collect data, if that's what they're after.
  My theory is that it's all about advertising. It's another point of contact with the consumer, and another opportunity to make sure every new release is presented to every potential buyer.
- At last we won't have a repeat of mass effect legendary.
  Launch steam to play. Which launches Origin, which launches the mass effect launcher which is where you decide which game to play.
  So damn annoying, I think I made shortcuts to the exes to bypass most of that shit.
- $$$$$

So many old games from Ubisoft that I'd buy from GOG if they'd strip out their stupid launcher but here we are.
- Isn't GOG the epitome of "just ignore the launcher and click on the main exe yourself"? Or are you bemoaning that these games aren't on GOG?
  
  The later, I want these games decrapified if I'm going to spend money on them.
  
  You can always use the GOG Galaxy launcher!
  ~~which I never use~~

are there any 2k games left worth playing?
- Civ 7 comes out in a few months. Mafia allegedly later in the year. A new Borderlands is somewhere in there too.
  
  Civ......7 is coming out???? Oh! Oh! So I guess I'm just going to need a time machine??? Is that it??? Because I'm an adult now!!! Working 6 damn days a week!!! Explain how I can just stop time, and spend 72 hours straight fighting off Gondi and his aggressive ass nukes!!! Explain that shit to me!!! Already work 16 hours a day 6 days a week! Now I gotta defend the world from nukes through politics, and science, and WE ALREADY KNOW WE'RE ALREADY GOING TO BUILD AN ARMY AND BLOW EVERYONE UP!!! WHY WE GOTTA DANCE THIS DANCE???
  huffs......huffs.......huffs......
  So how's everybodys day going? Ready for Thanksgiving? I sure am looking forward to relatives you only twice a year getting drunk and talking politics 3 weeks after the election! What could go wrong???
  Hmmmmm.........maybe butter knives are the sharpest thing I should put on this table......
  
  Civ VII is $160 CAD for the full version though. 😬
- Xcom 2 is the only game that comes to mind here.
- Not new but I like civ V. Glad they are removing the launcher.