I don't think there will ever be a retail (boxed) edition with both MoW and Red Tide, since Red Tide is supposed to be download version only, so the only way to buy both at once would be through Steam or Gamersgate. Obviously the best value is the Gold edition at $34.95, but it does require online access and activation.
And I am just like you, I prefer having my gamer PC offline to avoid installing so many service packs/patches, and an anti-virus program, but with the new multi-core CPUs, the loss in CPU cycles (processing power) is negligible, and some of the future games like C&C4 will require constant online access, we will need to give up and join the masses.
