I accept there is an online check in the form of forcing you to put Steam into Online Mode after you install it. That does not, in any shape or form, mean that "you're not allowed to play your game without Denuvo saying so". In fact, in the case above, for 99% of the users, nothing would ever change, they would not even know about it without looking it up.
And it is a reality that Denuvo is a very unobtrusive piece of software, which is a tremendous achievement on part of the developer. I accept that one can morally decline the use of games that enact DRM by use of this obfuscator, but you are being ridiculously alarmist. The paying customer notices nothing, in case of the Steam check. Except if they happen to install a game, put Steam into Offline Mode and then start it, which is not how you usually use Steam, and even then, it is a bit annoying at best.
The argument for preservation stands, but I do feel that is a larger topic than PC DRM anyway. Gaming is larger than the PC space, after all.