Yeah, I have no idea how GP thinks Epic is the gold standard. There are way better developers with extremely successful games that don't have this bullshit: Naughty Dog (Last of Us, Uncharted), FromSoft (mentioned, Elden Ring), Portkey Games (Hogwarts Legacy), Guerrilla Games (Horizon), Insomniac (Spider-Man), Santa Monica Studios (God of War), Sucker Punch (Ghost of Tsushima), Rockstar (Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto[0]) and many others. Epic is near the bottom of the list, not the top.
[0] The online has micro-transactions but even if it didn't exist, the single player experience is well worth the money alone and is on par with all the others.