personally i've had no problems with securom protected games...
and yep ea use securom... all i can say is don't believe the hype
chances are that if you buy the games from the ea download store then they'll be product activation based.. still securom... so if you don't like securom (do your own research though and come to your own conclusion.. don't believe all you read on the net) then you've really got 2 choices - (a) bite the bullet and play the game, (b) don't buy the game at all... or possibly (c) wait 10 ish years, and maybe a budget release happens which is unprotected (i wouldn't hold my breath on that one though)