Automatic patching, is overall a good thing.

It screws up mods, yes, but it puts everyone on the same page.

The steam platform is currently the best DRM measure. Yes it can be circumvented, but it is not widespread.

I do not see what you seek to gain by attempting to get total war off steam. We would move back to secuROM, which may delve into lower rings. The thing is terrible. CA/SEGA don't want it as it loses sales and is not as effective.

On top of that, gone are the terrible lobby days of R:TW and M2:TW, we have steam as an MP platform.

Steam has moved the game forward.

If you install M2TW:Kingdoms, you are made to have secuROM. You have no choice.

Steam is a platform, it is not DRM.

I had steam years and years ago, and I disliked it. But it has changed since then. Steam and Impulse are the best platforms out there for what we need, and what developers and distributors need.