Some people don't like Impulse. Some people don't like Steam. I guess it's just impossible to please everyone all of the time.
It's totally possible. And it's exactly what they did with Sins:Trinity at the end of it's life-cycle. Made it available on all platforms and let the consumer buy from whichever he/she wants.
I don't understand why they are making steam MANDATORY. It goes against a lot of what they tried to do when they created impulse and allowed for a viable alternative to steam that had less drm and more freedom(like playing without the client running). First they sell Impulse to Gamestop, then they make Rebellion Steam exclusive. Your breaking my heart Stardock
For the record Steam's Offline mode is dodgy as hell, and you can only even access it if you start steam up connected to the internet and log-in first, you can't log-in offline. And that remains a HUGE problem for me with making any game steam exclusive(steamworks).