It absolutely is a nuisance - I regret buying Command and Conquer 3 because it is intrinsically tied to EA's servers, you can't even play single player games without being signed in and online. Even your saved games only exist on their servers.

But I bet it was more effective than any other form of DRM they've used over the years.

I wholly agree. Just pointing out that they're "games as a service", even if that service is a disservice.