Meanwhile, a ~year since Riot required Vanguard, League/Valorant playerbase isn't really any smaller. If anything, it's continued to grow.

The players do not seem to mind. At all. Basically a non-issue for 99%.

I'm not terribly surprised so many here find kernel anti-cheat "unacceptable" or "ridiculous" or whatever, but there's just no there there. Microsoft has kernel access: are they selling my stuff, too ? I don't pay for Firefox: are they auctioning off my passwords? I guess it's fun to speculate; I can make unfalsifiable claims all day