I created an account specifically to post this message.
I have flown military grade combat simulators for almost 20 years. In that time I've seen ArmA 2 and ArmA 3 come out. I won't get into why I reject Steam, but I categorically will never have Steam on my computer again. For several years, I had wanted ArmA but the Steam problem stopped me.
For the record, Bohemia, I will pay twice, maybe three times what you are asking for this game providing I don't have to have Steam to run it. As you have said above, running without Steam is impossible. Therefore....
I am so sad this is the case. Your software, from what I have seen (and everyone else has seen, too) this is an awesome FPS simulator.