Turning that off in the launcher doesn't work. I have had it off in the launcher since I started playing about two years ago, and only with this recent patch, it has been enabled, but still patches on demand in game anyway. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling from both Arc and Steam, and neither changed this either.
I hope that we get some form of acknowledgement on how huge an issue the on-demand patching is being for many people, simply not being able to play the game is such a huge issue that I can easily see people quitting before a solution is made if no word that they are working on one goes out.
Just going to throw my hat in with the "On Demand Patching" situation. I have to have it off because otherwise, trying to download a map on a loading screen often outright crashes my game, so I am completely unable to play NW anymore until this issue gets resolved. Hopefully we can get word in this one soon!