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Helldivers 2 now has the most negative reviews among all paid games
(programming.dev)
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If people could play without it then it wasn't required. Especially if the majority of the time the game has been active it hasn't been. So in the eyes of consumers it wasn't required. EULAs or whatever is only something companies clutch onto.
Not everyone buys a game immediately at launch. So doesn't matter. There were enough people that could as their first play through that game wasn't even region blocked.