I can't find definitive info on when the 2K launcher was added to the game, but it seems to have been approximately 1 month ago (sometime in March or April 2021). The addition of the 2K launcher means that you can no longer rename the executable from "Mafia3DefinitiveEdition.exe" to "Mafia3.exe" to solve issues with Nvidia not recognizing the game, as well as the performance seems to be damaged beyond belief. This game runs worse now than it ever has before and it seems like it's all due to the requirement of the 2K launcher (which apparently hogs 30 times as many resources as it should, though I can't confirm that). With Mafia (1): Definitive Edition you can bypass this launcher but not with 3.
I don't know how this info should be integrated into the article but I thought I'd say something.