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Ignore multiplayer for a moment. What stops everyone from just pirating all of the single-player games that are currently sold on GOG?

Convinience and the risk for viruses. Ban pirate servers from the master server list etc.

What does that have to do with multiplayer servers?

If you let people run their own multiplayer servers, you have no way to stop them from playing with pirated clients. You're not in control of the servers.

Company-provided servers are an expense the company suffers, not something that's cheaper or more convenient than letting the player base operate their own servers. They make the game worse for both the company and the players. Why do you think they're mandatory anyway?