Almost every other 386-era DOS game also wants to switch the machine to protected mode, even in the presence of EMM386, and doesn't need something as absurdly c

Almost every other 386-era DOS game also wants to switch the machine to protected mode, even in the presence of EMM386, and doesn't need something as absurdly complicated as GEMMIS to do that. My point is: GEMMIS is for replacing EMM386 itself, not for temporarily enabling protected mode, for which there are (and were) alternatives. That's why GEMMIS is basically exposing the internals of EMM386 and why no one likes to implement it (implementing it forces you to design your manager as per EMM386 internals), plus why it is typical of the behavior of MS in the era (even when they make a standard, never miss an opportunity to abuse it to give your product an edge).