I'm still going to buy it, the whole launcher war doesn't bother me.

Yes, it is really piracy if you download a different version of a game than the version you paid for.

Or is it also okay to download the Switch version of a game for free if we already paid for another version (f.e. a much cheaper PC, iOS or Android version of the same game)?

I did that for Doom. I didn't want Denuvo on my PC, so I bought the Switch version, torrented the PC version, and played both. I support the dev's work by buying the game and punishing the DRM by not giving them money through there. Now that there's no Denuvo in PC Doom, I have it for PC. I see no problem.

Some people doing that kind of stuff without "seeing a problem" still doesn't make it "a legitimate form of protest".

And what exactly is wrong with it? This people supported the game, without their money, it wouldn't exist. Now that the publisher has changed the deal, why shouldn't the customers react in kind?

I don’t care about exclusive game deals or Shenmue but it is shady as fuck to kickstart a game with the belief that it was a Steam game and then after people have paid millions to fund it, change it to a platform lots of people fucking hate. I hope it backfires big time on them to sway any other greedy devs from trying that BS in the future.

Or if you get the refund and then download illegal version.

And so the console wars have come to the PC.

I'm very confused. Can someone explain to me why people are upset that they'll have to use a different launcher than they anticipated?

The problem is the EGS. Lack of features is one problem, but many have more concerns over privacy and their data. We already got a leak there and since Epic is 50% part of TenCent now, many just don't want all their Data (and the EGS takes a lot of data from you, more than Google does iirc!) to go to China.

So yeah, anybody who has concerns over their privacy tries to avoid the EGS like the plague. The lack of features is just the tip of the iceberg, the customer-unfriendly moneyhatting the cherry on top. Both those who are truly adamant against the store are mostly those who see that whole picture.