[Syd Thrift]

If you open the game with your save file, it will take you right on past the initial splash screen. Even if you don't, you literally have to just ignore that one screen and you never, ever have to interact with PT in any other way (okay, I guess there are those announcements, which I admit are sometimes annoying, but those do cover lots of non-PT stuff as well).

In the long-term, yeah, they kind of do want you to try out the game. They do make a little extra money from it, after all. There's absolutely nothing saying you have to buy it, and in fact if you never bother to enter your email address to the right, nothing ever happens. It's hardly this major onerous situation to have to ignore one side of the splash screen when you're loading your league (or be presented with the existence of said right half when you load the way I do).