steam is not a drm-free platform like GOG or Epic Games.
Most games use the Steam API to check stuff, so Steam client needs to be running.
(I’m actually kinda ok with steam’s drm btw, it’s not that intrusive)
I’m fine with the DRM. But why does the window need to open and take several seconds to “connect to the friends network” for a singleplayer game? This doesn’t need to be a blocking process.
Isnt this possible? I do it with blender. Just right click the icon of the game and pin it to your taskbar then click it when you wanna launch the game