You want to really own your game, not just a license, buy on gog. Not on Steam, not on Epic, not on uplay and whatever else.
Why is everyone so pissed at Ubisoft, they just say what's practise for years now! And sometimes counter Ubisoft by quoting Gabe Newell, what the fuck? He made not owning games popular!
There's a big difference between having to pay a monthly subscription to play a game and just having to use steam to launch it after a one time payment.
Steam can just bar you from playing those games though if they so choose. The only thing preventing that is Gabe. But that guy will have to retire some day.
I know what you mean, but you still don't own the game, you have permission to play it, at least as long as the platform lets you or it closes. For now it's all good, but when the time comes people will loose accounts worth thousands of bucks.