So where can I download the patch? I only find references to download it with a Windows Live account...

You were forced to use it - whether you played Fallout 3, Kane & Lynch, Street Fighter 4 or whatever, you did get to see the GFWL registration screen when you started the game. What you weren't forced to do - at least until around 2009 - was register the game on the internet.

GFWL would allow you to install the game, create an offline profile and play the game without ever needing an internet connection.

Of course, they then saw the need to start emulating Steam so they could start brown-nosing publishers, so GFWL games then started requiring one-time activation on an online GFWL profile.

It was buried deep in the Capcom forums when I got it, I could always send a copy to you directly if you want.

I was never forced to do anything with gfwl, but I got the GOTY Edition that was released years later.
They probably removed it.

I assume you are talking about Fallout 3 as I have not played any of the others.
I was given a copy of the original Fallout 3 which could barely be gotten to work on my modern, mid range PC due to GfWL obsessive disorders. Yet the GOTY version seemed somehow to have its in check.
I bought the GOTY version after attempting to play the original and wanting to play the add-ons decided to try the "more stable" game. So I uninstalled the broken original and with only a single tweak to an .ini file was running the game out of the box.
Not that anyone should need to worry about GfWL as no company which respects its customers should be using DRM in the first place. Unfortunately most companies do not trust their customers (especially in the entertainment industry) and so the end users always suffer.

Microsoft is still keeping up Games for Windows Live (GFWL) until possibly every single PC versions of video games have Games for Windows Live (GFWL) removed in a patch and moved to Steamworks.

GFWL is being kept alive because of DRM, Microsoft clearly wants to ditch GFWL because it costs them more money than it generates but can't do so because of the many games that need it.
I can't think of a clearer message against this sort of DRM than this whole issue, the same could happen to any game mangled with Steamworks even though it is currently not likely.
It ends up in promoting piracy, legitemate owners of these games have to download pirate copies in order to play them, the irony.

GFWL is not shutting down , the service will continue but they have shutdown the store so any purchases will not be possible , Many companies have opted not to patch it out due ms saying it will not be a total shutdown like gamespy is going to do.

Indeed, these situations tend to remind of the times when the DRM schemes become too much for the companies they were supposed to "protect".