I run my GOG games in a networkless namespace (only loopback available) for pretty much that reason, and I've yet to encounter the first game that has in-game issues about it. The worst result I've seen is that changelogs or devlogs don't render.

Phoning home isn’t wrong. Ideally in the case of the crew, if the management had an ounce of brains they would have got a couple of devs to patch that code such that it wouldn’t make the game inoperable even though the servers don’t respond. But then some idiot executive might have opposed that patch saying we cannot remove “DRM Protection” from our properties. The problem here is that company executives and leadership, especially in outfits like Ubisoft, have no vision no skill. They are just MBA grifters who are milking brands and pretending they are looking out for the shareholders. These parasites would simply move from company to company, spreading their poison everywhere. And now there is crazy talk of forcing code to be open source. Absolute madness.

Most games are still single player.

It's the big predatory names that tend to go multiplayer first, or require players being online even for single player.

Fuck you rockstar btw, for lying on the steam page that a rockstar club account isn't required for max payne 3 single player.