"DRAGONBORN_REQUIRED. 11-11-11 NOT A RELEASE DATE. A WARNING." Then came the error
I thought it was a joke. Maybe a modder’s Easter egg. I checked the file’s digital signature. Valid. Steam’s own. I checked the creation timestamp. November 11, 2011. 12:00 AM UTC. Steam-api.dll Skyrim Legendary Edition
It was 2:17 AM when I gave up and double-clicked the .exe directly, like a caveman.
The DLL is still out there. On some hard drive. In some mod pack. Waiting for someone else to double-click.