I think it’s pretty clear from context that they mean they have the ability to perpetually play the games because of the lack of DRM, not the right.

Plenty claim it's their right and with much ferocity while as vehemently ignoring that there are plenty of games on GOG that offer reduced content when playing offline (an extensive list was posted by someone). Also, because games on Steam must disclose their use of DRM (and anti-cheat), people can just buy DRM-free games which can be backed up just as well. Goldberg is a drop-in library for games that use Steam APIs. So everything is fine there as well for people who actually make informed buying decisions.

But the APIs are public, so they can be reimplemented in open source.

And have been since years: https://mr_goldberg.gitlab.io/goldberg_emulator/

Is proton entirely FOSS?

Of course it is. Proton-GE and umu wouldn't exist if it weren't.

but now that I think about it, I am not sure.

You could have headed to Github and just looked for yourself...

For most people that is a distinction without a difference.

So what's the difference to making a backup of my Steam folder? The games I play have no DRM either.

If you can’t play the game without the steam client then it still has drm.

Plenty of games don't rely on any Steamworks API at all. For the remaining goldberg_emulator exits.

No one needs to “offer” Proton. It’s available freely for anyone.

And that's how GOG does not support Linux: Paying customers need to figure it out on their own. They don't even value their customers to a degree to take and integrate existing open source solutions.

GOG is a side project of CD Project, the makers of The Witcher and Cyberpunk. They are massively wealthy. If GOG goes down, it's because CD Project lets it happen, not because there is no other way.

It does support Linux: it lets you download Linux installer for games that have a Linux port.

GOG lets publishers upload various installers but GOG does nothing to support them, let alone offer something like Proton (which is open source, so they could take and integrate it for free).

How do you use a Steam game after its license was revoked?

By default Steam is a mere download manager without any DRM. You can zip the game folder and back it up anywhere. Whether or not publishers go through the additional steps to enable one or more DRM solution is a different matter. My favorite Steam games have no DRM at all.

Shit I really like GOG as it’s the only competition to steam

There are plenty of competing PC game online stores, it's just that they all suck monkey balls when you're not using Windows. Microsoft is currently using their old monopolist playbook and release Blizzard games to the fucking Microsoft Store and Game Pass and not a single 3rd party store.

And don't forget that the other publisher-owned storefronts like EA's and Ubisoft's are also still alive. They suck hard but they exist and apparently they do well enough to continue to be around.

Steam is the only PC games store that fights Microsoft's Windows monopoly. GOG Galaxy has been written using the Qt framework. Making a Linux version of an existing Qt application is relatively easy (at least compared to a full port). Do that, integrate umu-Launcher for Windows games, bundle everything up and release GOG Galaxy on Flathub. Boom, done. But they don't do that despite their massive pile of Witcher and Cyberpunk money.

So plenty of competition exists but if you happen to not be Windows-exclusive, everyone but Steam is bad.

i don’t want it to be the only option.

Neither do I but it is. GOG doesn't support Linux. Heroic is a 3rd party community effort. Valve is currently the only company making financial investments into Linux gaming.

The fix was there, but they removed it.

Return YouTube Dislikes still exists. The likes and dislikes of RYD users are stored in an external database, so Google cannot take them away.