If you check this list and this list, many games on Steam will actually launch without Steam running. I don’t think I can say the same for a lot of other platforms, excluding GOG and itch, of course.

I don’t disagree with you about why it exists and that it’s bad, but the fact remains that it does exist and Remedy and Epic, as companies, need to face that when making these decisions and factor that into sales projections accordingly. They should have known what they were getting into, and forcing people into using Epic isn’t really the answer to the lock-in problem anyway.

Edit: Turns out a bunch of other platforms have DRM-free games too, TIL.