I don't even buy third party exclusives on consoles, why would I do that on PC? It's super lame.

I don't buy digital games until they are either massively on sale, or I am ready to play them. Their 1 year exclusivity BS has no power over me. I'll just go to my backlog and play anyone of my 500+ other games. :D

Meanwhile, me with the ever fucking useful "ignore game/publisher/dev"" button on Steam:

In the end, this just means less games for me to buy, less interest, less desire to support certain indie devs who think they deserve the golden ticket above other devs.

Let’s be honest, it’s the easiest way to get more people to the platform. If a PC gamer wants a game so badly and it’s timed exclusive to the EGS, they’ll most likely get it there. Personally, I don’t think it’s that bad; you’re not forced to buy a new console for the game and the third-party “exclusives” are always timed.

By “doubling down” though, I hope they mean that they’ll fund more indie developers to create new projects, like the partnerships they started last year with genDESIGN, Playdead and Remedy. That way, timed or permanent exclusives are much more justified, since Epic Games will publish them.

True, but the ultimate problem many have is that Tim Sweeney is showing Epic as the "good guys" in this, about "breaking up the monopoly held by Steam" only to hypocritically pay for timed or permanent exclusivity just to not have games on Steam. Like, how anti-consumer and egotistical can you get? Being forced to go to a storefront no one asked for, and not even have anywhere near a complete system in place? Irks me the wrong way.  

Now if Epic bought exclusivity because they're publishing the game, that's a different story, but so few times has that been the case. 

I don't get your logic in all this. PC already has millions of people on the platform, and we know it gets more every day on the likes of other clients, not only just on Epic's.

We also know that they generated less income via last years exclusivity deals, which proves it's not a stable and healthy business plan, and it's certainly not winning the hearts and minds of everyone.

Epic only funds those that they choose to make deals with. There are thousands of indie devs young and old, that also require funding, and Epic selectively ignores them, because they don't have that lightning in a bottle, hence why, after 2 and a half years, they are still just handing out limited "golden" tickets to selected devs, in the hopes that those devs will also side and vouch for Epic.

We've got other venues that support indie devs as well, why not a want for those to grow?.

You seem to want exclusivity console style to happen on PC, yet you fail to understand why people on PC dislike it, tossing it away on a whim with a faulty excuse like "you don't have to buy a hunk of plastic" (yet you have to buy the game at the end of the day, is what ultimately matters).

What some on this forum aren't seeing here, is that Epic doesn't want to play underdog, it wants to become the top player in the industry. Just look at how they took on Apple, Google and Steam, yet allying themselves with the likes of Tencent, a mega holdings company, and Sony, a console company, while Epic seemingly ignores MS, their previous partner, but at the same time, wishing for all cuts to match theirs, even though they haven't stated they will hold that cut until the end of time (and we know all companies change their tactics, so that 12% cut will not last indefinitely, just like how EA's "on the house" deal ended after 4 years and we went from free games, to paying a sub fee).

Some here don't care what they do to an open platform, partly because I think some here believe the console motif somehow fits and should replace PC's current operation, which is wrong, because this is not how an open platform is supposed to work, you don't let someone grow in power, abuse the system, closing parts of it off and passive aggressively seeking to dismantle the competition via slander and court cases.

For me, I have stayed away due to the privacy issues that came out not long after the launch of the store.  Their lawsuits against Apple and Google, and their constant theft of content for Fortnite certainly haven't helped their case in my eyes.

That is fine. The major problem with EGS exclusivity was, that in the beginning many of the games were backed by crowdfunding with the promise of releasing it at other places. No one would have said anything if it published also on EGS, but that way it lead to broken promises. If in the future EGS backs new projects that from the start only promise a release on EGS, that is fine.

Almost as bad as Sony when it comes to exclusivity hoarding.