Shame on you for using STEAM !

[TheGrunch]

The only thing I can say about this whole debate is that seriously, everything in life has its pros and cons, and some of you guys need to stop getting your knickers in a twist about the most insignificant cons. Just chill out. You can play in offline mode if you want, you can turn off auto-updating (and honestly doing those things eliminates all of my *personal* issues with Steam), and if you choose to actually use it as it is intended it is an excellent server browser and a very good way to keep track of squadmates and other people you enjoyed playing with online.

I don't see how activating the offline mode is a lot of hassle either, you just have to login once, make sure the game is working and then click Go Offline. They make it sound more difficult in the article by including every single insignificant step so as to make the instructions idiot-proof.
As for the activation thing, it's true that Solidshield is the actual form of DRM chosen, but due to the way Steam works you'll still have to login to install the game, the Solidshield part is kind of implied by the actual installation process.