Bad take. Kobo lets you know which books have DRM and which don't. And even with DRM, you can get them into Adobe Digital Editions and load them on to basically any e-reader. (Maybe not Kindle since it won't open DRM'd ePubs.)
I buy like 60% of my ebooks from Kobo and have never owned a Kobo-brand ereader.
In the end that's also shitty. I don't want to "get them into Adobe Digital Editions". I don't want to have to use Adobe shitware, and I don't want their special formats. Just give me the epub or pdf. Also their website treated me like shit and they have no good way to contact anyone visible on their website.
Kobo is not it. Maybe they once were, at some point before I tried using them. I am not gonna support them after my experience with them.
As I explained above, you can get the ePubs directly if you just used the free Kobo desktop app. I think you need to ask yourself why you were OK using the Amazon Kindle app for DeDRM but Kobo or Adobe's was a huge burden. Really Bizzare IMO.
Do you know the concept of time passing? Could it be possible, that my stance regarding ebooks changed over time, and that I have become more aware of the associated issues? Hmmmm.
What is bizarre here is you posting these comments, trying to invalidate my all around terrible experience with Kobo. Your account is green behind the ears and all your comments are on Kobo, Kobo, Kobo. Go figure.
I like eBooks, I've had eReaders from Sony, Kobo, Amazon and Boox, bought from Amazon, Kobo, Google Play, and several of the smaller players like Baen. Outside of the completely DRM-free places like Baen which are very limited in selection, Kobo is IMO the easiest to get a DRM-free file in the end. Your posts were IMO very off the mark that it got me to comment. I'd rather people try Kobo than keep feeding the Amazon machine.
I said, "I'll leave it to you to find out why". This is a public forum. Just maybe look up some Calibre plug-ins which might help you "manage" DRM books.
I've used it and I found it the worst form of DRM. It required creating an "account" with Adobe despite having no relationship with them (It was to access books at my local library where I already had an account) and the software didn't even work on linux. Even getting it to work at all took ages of tinkering and I'm an IT expert. My parents who just wanted to simply check out a book out of the digital library during the pandemic would never have managed to figure that out.
And yes I have liberated all my DRM books from Amazon. But Adobe Digital I will never touch again (Nor buy books with DRM on it in the first place).
Really that is WAY too complicated for my folks. And for me I don't want accounts with big tech companies to do something local so step 2 was already a blocking point.
And as for removing the DRM (I assume that's what you're hinting at), yeah but that can be done with kindle's and kobo's too and in less roundabout ways. The existence of a hack for Adobe DRM doesn't make that a 'good' DRM.
One of the primary functions of DRM is to remove a paying customer's access to the works they paid for. There's nothing "wild" or "crazy" or "unbelievable" about it.
That's my take. I break the DRM off books I've bought. I own those copies. I'll format shift them for my own convenience. Bought on Kindle but want to read on my Kobo? It's impossible to make me feel guilt about that.
But I don't read books I haven't legally acquired, whether through a paid bookstore, or temporarily borrowed via Libby, or Standard Ebooks or whatever. I won't yell at other people for doing that, but I don't do it myself. In a nutshell, I follow the same rules as with physical books I own (or temporarily possess).
I buy like 60% of my ebooks from Kobo and have never owned a Kobo-brand ereader.