You can still play Steam games without Steam. They only put basic protection on the files that can be very easily bypassed (and yes, it’s legal). See Steam Goldberg emu
And even that basic protection is optional. There are a few games on Steam that have no DRM at all, Witcher 3 (but for some reason not the remaster) and Baldurs Gate 3 for example.
You can still play Steam games without Steam. They only put basic protection on the files that can be very easily bypassed (and yes, it’s legal). See Steam Goldberg emu
And even that basic protection is optional. There are a few games on Steam that have no DRM at all, Witcher 3 (but for some reason not the remaster) and Baldurs Gate 3 for example.
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_big_list_of_DRM-free_games_on_Steam