It was about 2 weeks from when I first experienced Spore to when I first jumped in on my first game of Sins of a Solar Empire, and in doing the research my credit card is now warm. Warm from the purchasin'. I just had to buy Sins, and on the back of the Spore DRM disappointment it would just seem like I was a jerk if I didn't.
I just couldn't handle it, and I feel was somehow taunted into the purchase.
Not that I regret it in any way, but apparently they know better than anyone that you're paying good money for a serial number in some packaging. Perhaps some people aren't spoilt that way with their games yet, but releasing something that works out of the box with no hidden SecuROM/Starforce surprises kind of lets me know that they probably might like us gamers as a whole, and that they'd be happy to talk to one of us if we brought up how Duke Nukem Forever sure is taking forever at some high profile social gathering somewhere. This could be because they are gamers as well, and the fact that one could cite blog posts like just like this one let me know they also respect me as a consumer of their 'boxed serial number' offering.
And now Stardock are also on board for the upcoming Demigod, along with those lords of strategy over at Gas Powered Games. And after waking up from the shock, I've signed up for the beta as well.