what is going on here?
Are these companies merging?
I can't add a link to show you, just search for GOG in the epic games store

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/gog-galaxy

No
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/gog_galaxy_featured_on_the_epic_games_store/post28

free advertisement, GOG needs it since many don't have a clue what it is anyway.

Right.

Is there a way we can be sure that EPIC, Discord, Spotify and Brave Browser are not owned by the same people?

Look here:
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/discover/apps

They are offering to download or buy apps. This even includes a Humble Bundle or an itch.io app.

And there is already a thread about this:

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/gog_galaxy_featured_on_the_epic_games_store/page1

This is now the third thread about it.

Maybe they realize that the Epic launcher is a big stinky pile of poo and as far as store-based game librbary managers and launchers, Galaxy is superior due to having some basic functionality that Epic's lacks. I'm talking about things like being able to hide games you claimed for free but ultimately don't like.

Galaxy also has official integration with Epic, so it does make sense that Epic would have it available... But I found that some weird things occur if you have both running when installing an Epic game where it will show up as "Unknown Game" in Galaxy where the workaround is to have Galaxy closed when installing from Epic then running Galaxy after.

Overall though, I prefer Playnite.

GOG and Epic joining forces to throw down Steam's monopoly :D haha

Playnite all day!

My issue with Galaxy is the limits on the number of images your can replace or add.
If not for that, I might have kept on using it.

I thank everyone for the info, I was just worried that GOG is on its way to stop with its fantastic offline installers and turn into just another "steam launcher only type store"