Mr. Mulligan,
I've been using the PCEA non-steam version of WGT exclusively for a couple of months now and have found that it plays about as well as the flash version. There are some differences for sure but after a couple of weeks of playing I was able to acclimate myself and find the game as enjoyable as before. Yes there are a bunch of features that lend itself to look like some sort of uninteresting little video game but if you want to play the game the way that you play on flash player, I think you can and find it to be more than acceptable. In addition, The PCEA game is still " early access" and there are more improvements with each update and by the time flash goes away, I think it will be even better.
I keep hoping that there will be some sort of "Grand Opening " roll out once we have a final product. I keep telling myself that WGT might even surprise us with a new course or 2. I think I am probably lying to myself on that one . But I dream on.