Personally I think all this debating is a waste of time, we can speculate content and quality of Game/DLC etc till the release of any Game/DLC and still be incorrect in our assumptions.
Lets face facts, DLC is here to stay, it's a way for the devs to make extra cash from the paying public and community hardcore, but as has been stated prior in many posts, if you don't like it don't buy it, simple really. But DLC's are part of the gaming norm now, and you can thank xbox & console gamers for that.
Kunos is only doing what is best for Kunos and it's future as a race-sim dev, it's called protecting your investment and is an
important factor in any business, try putting yourself in Kunos's position, I'm sure you would be doing as much as possible to guarantee your product will profit and provide future security, not only for the staff at Kunos but the company itself, even if it means a Steam release.
Steam are a solid reliable, cheat free server source that even the likes of EA are trying to mimic. Sure there are some issues with Steam from time to time, that happens with all servers on occasion, and I'll admit Steam has made some serious errors on occasion too, but if they weren't reliable then why are so many software companies releasing via Steam, it's not just the money.
Lets not forget that AC will be 100% modder accessible, so we will see a plethora of high grade and not so high grade mods & tracks hitting the download databases within months of AC's release. So for those who don't have the funds for the DLC's, it's not the end of the road.
As humans we all think too much sometimes and make assumptions without all the facts, but this is part of our nature as sentient thinking beings, debate is healthy, but sometimes I feel we should agree to disagree, leave it there, and move on.
I think that time has come!
Cheers