[IggleSniggle]

That's not a Steam thing though, but rather the specific software. Steam explicitly has an exit path for the user if Valve disappeared overnight that allows their downloaded games to continue working offline.

The difference being that we are discussing platforms, not the things that run on those platforms.

[YeBanKo]

Steam Offline wants you to go online and perform a bunch of steps, including launching games and then enabling offline mode. Every game launch is is probably a download of at least few hundred megabytes of data. And then every game requires its own networks where your account linked to steam acc, etc. and Rockstar games iirc it you must be online when you launch the game. So the fact that Steam client has offline mode is irrelevant and misleading.

[IggleSniggle]

That has not been my experience. Any online game is going to be its own thing, dependent on the choices of the game company. Inherently, Steam does not require all the steps you're describing.

Sidenote, but my experience with the Rockstar launcher has been absolutely atrocious, to the point that I just avoid rockstar at this point even though I'd otherwise be interested because I've been burned so many times. That's a Rockstar issue, not a Steam issue.