LE is bad for a multitude of reasons.

First, its more unoptimized than SE is. You will have a tougher time getting LE to run on an 2017 APU (integrated graphics) compared to SE.
Second, the way they redesigned how the game runs containers (the game itself, all DLCs and most mods are packed into container files) also means the game runs faster. It does for me through testing it on several PCs (I own a 2013 PC that runs SE faster than it does with LE as well, but not when it comes to ultra settings, play on med or high and SE usually is faster).

AE may be even better, but time will tell. It runs the data a bit differently and seems overall more stable and faster when it loads containers, FPS wise AE is about 3 FPS faster than SE way.

And use SKSE and Engine Fixes, which will solve all your issues otherwise.

But I agree, fuck that crypto money shit. Its oversaturated and takes too many GPUs away from the costumer.

EDIT: I do agree with you on one thing though, that always online factor has to be rooted out. SE/AE has its DRM coded within the Bethesda Store. There are lots of ways to disable it within Skyrim though (since they based anything around containers people are able to alter anything, including the menus). But I suppose it still requires the game to be online all the time which is a shame.

Offline Skyrim SE would be incredible.

Moddb definitely seems to have gotten more barren over the years which is a shame as it was the best of these type of sites. And that's a good point about Vortex, I was referring to the old one, no need in my mind to have newer junk cluttering up and obscuring things. The more convenient any of this is marketed as, the odds are I will find it inconvenient. It's really heinous how newer modders will become accustomed to the Scheme Workshop and Walled Garden Club and make these "old" options even more obscure.

I'll refrain from the LE vs SE discussion...

... but...

... if Skyrim makes it here in any form...

... I will 100% buy it.

It looks like they want to treat that the same way they treated the original Skyrim on steam.

Any chance? Yes of course! There is always a chance that any game ever made could end up being sold on GOG in the future. There are a lot of games that are extremely super duper mega unlikely either due to being tied up in legal intellectual property hell (like the Black & White series), but even some of those eventually get sorted out (like Legacy of Kain Black Omen finally got sorted out and released here).

There are also a lot of game companies that have very little incentive to release their games in any other stores other than their own such as Blizzard or Valve for example... however... GOG managed to convince Blizzard to let them bring back Diablo and Warcraft 1&2 a while back which was a shocking "wow, hell actually froze over" moment.

So a lot of us definitely think certain games are likely to never ever be released here due to either legal issues or the companies that own the games have no incentive to distribute their games on GOG, and while that is true there are occasional times where it does end up happening, and it's been happening with increasing frequency every year as the store has grown over time. So we can say "unlikely" but also "never say never".

Having said all of that, GOG themselves do not get to pick and choose what games they sell here if the publisher of a game does not want to sell their game here. The only way a game gets sold here is if the publisher of the game themselves desires to sell the game here and approaches GOG and negotiates a mutual agreement, or if GOG approaches them and convinces them in negotiation to do it.

We know that GOG is constantly approaching publishers and trying to bring their games here, in particular the most highly wishlisted ones, and that they've had many successes doing this over the years. At the end of the day GOG can't force companies to sell their games here though, a company has to either want to do it or to be convinced via negotiation, and if they just straight up do not want to do it or don't want to put the resources into the investment then it wont happen.

In the case of Skyrim it isn't a matter of Bethesda not knowing, nor a case of GOG not asking them. It ultimately comes down to business, and the only reason a game like Skyrim isn't available on GOG is that Bethesda has chosen that it isn't a priority for them to do so currently compared to other things they could be doing. If Skyrim DRM-free on GOG becomes a higher priority over time then we're very likely to see it show up here eventually.

If you look at Bethesda's releases here over time, we now have many of their games here that people swore would never ever come to GOG. Then when they do, people say "that's fine and dandy but THIS GAME <insert other game not yet here> will never come to GOG!" and another 6 months or year or two passes and that game comes to GOG also and surprises everyone. The cycle continues with people saying "yeah that's great, but THIS OTHER GAME isn't here and wont come here ever".... until it too does.

So IMHO, nothing is "never" going to happen. Everything will come here when the decision makers at a given publisher decide that they want to do it because they see it as a strong investment opportunity and depending on the game, they go about resolving any legal or other ownership etc. issues first, and then get working on it.

That's really the only reasons why any game isn't here, either legal reasons, lack of resources, or the publisher either not seeing the projected ROI being viable for the effort they need to put into it, or seeing other potential projects as a higher ROI for the same resource expenditure. It's all big business in the end, and money walks as they say.

We'll see Skyrim here eventually most likely but not until Bethesda thinks it is the most worthwhile thing for them to be spending their resources to churn out. Same thing is true for any game from any publisher though really, it's nothing Bethesda specific.

Yes, it is depressing. Another very good reason why conscientious gamers should utterly reject Steam, DRM and, frankly, modern AAA games. The one comforting thought for me is that AAA games these days are, in general, utter trash and not worth my time anyway (let alone my hard-earned money).

Go ahead AAA industry, lock down all the trash that you've ruined anyway ... as long as the good indie games (being made by developers who care) are still free :-)

It would be an instabuy for me if it were DRM free.
I won't sacrifice my anti DRM principles to buy a game I want, so for now, I do without.

Would buy either LE or SE on GOG. It would be best if they did a GOG Connect for the many people who already own on other PC platforms. But that's not going to happen.