I really hope the (eventual) rise in popularity of the Steam Deck will somehow convince developers and publishers to dial it back a little with these goddamn useless launchers and clients.
I guess the launcher makes sense during EA for Larian to help gather metrics on how players interact with the game, problems they encounter, crash reports etc. The launcher is optional, though (i.e. you can launch the game without it).
I could list two pages of reasons why private launchers may be convenient for developers and publishers, but it doesn't change the problem: they are a nuisance for the final user.
What's even more important, they are superfluous even for their main goal (which is usually A- forcing you to create an account with that company B- direct data gathering) as the same results can be achieved with an IN-GAME integration, without external bloatware.
