Recently there was a thing where VAC would erroneously flag AMD’s antilag+ feature as cheating, and issue a ban.
AMD then quickly disabled the feature by default but now Valve also patched detection for it and is now, at least according to these patch notes, reversing the bans.
no one needs to play any game
it’s just a matter of how willing someone is to compromise on their principles for entertainment
When I was a teenager I played the newest games too, so I won’t judge. Privilege of the young. Today my time is scarce, so I have the luxury of carefully choosing my titles, and I choose DRM free. But back then I would have “needed” to play the newest Assassin’s Creed.