What’s the other side for free cloud gaming?

Nobody cracked the PC version until after the removal.

Always online aside, the reason Denuvo keeps being used is because for most Denuvoed games it takes a lot longer than a few days/weeks for a crack to be released, if ever - there is only one entity that cracks Denuvo anymore, and their releases are sporadic (plus they’re a bit of a … character). Plenty of games still don’t use Denuvo though, and those don’t even last a day.

I don’t quite get slapping it on an always online game where you’re expected to connect directly to their game servers, though.

Isn’t that what every instance already does?