Games often write to Program Files, system-wide redistributables, or shared folders. VC++ runtimes, DirectX, .NET, PhysX installers all require admin.

Repack scripts are usually written to “just work” everywhere, so they have the stuff mentioned above built in. Or maybe fitgirl is just lazy and asks for admin even if it is not strictly needed.

There is definitely a risk of malware etc. when pirating, so you are not dumb to be wary.

Ideally you’d install the game in a VM first and run some virus/malware check on the whole VM afterwards.

I’m not sure, but this has me wondering how this works in Proton. I’ve installed plenty of fitgirl repacks through proton which worked very well.

Looks like Wine just acts like UAC is enabled and allowed, but still runs with the same privileges: https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/wikis/FAQ#head-c9e6502ad636315e905d07f7e44594757a6738e3%3A~%3Atext=Should+I+run+Wine+as+root

As of Wine 9.4, Wine programs run as a limited user by default, but will automatically and silently elevate themselves if necessary (in the same situations that Windows would spawn a UAC prompt), at which point they will report administrator privileges while still running as the same Unix user.

Installing apps in Windows is a privileged process. This keeps the average user from corrupting a system.

The only users that can install apps are ones with Install Apps permission (I forget what it’s actually called). Anyone in the Admin group has this. The group Users does not.

In a business/domain environment, very few people get local admin rights. For a home user best practice would be to run as a User or at most Power User, and only do admin level stuff when logged in as an Admin.

No one does this, of course. (I certainly don’t, even though I know better. It’s just easier to not do risky things and maintain backups).