I was considering buying the game, after reading a few reviews, but I have a few reservations. Yes, I have read about the "balancing issues" but thats not a big deal to me, per se (I'm a loyal fan, one of the only game franchises that still exist that I am loyal too).

My reservations are thus:
1. DLC. I read that some of the civilizations will be available only as DLC. How does this work for Civ V? I have games from GOG.com and Apezone.com, but those are whole games saved as executables. I dont want to buy content from a company that may disappear someday (even it if is Steam. Game companies are not eternal, and then they end up on GoG.com). I really prefer having a hod on the data and not relying on a provider (DDO being the exception since it is an MMO). Even the DLC I got for NWN is saved as an executable on an external storage drive.
2. Do you think the DLC will end up in the bundle packs or expansions? I like to buy as efficiently as possible, and I normally end up waiting until Civ ends up as a "complete" edition. I rarely get in on the ground floor of games, for this reason.

I think that covers my main hangups. I was wondering if there was a demo version of the game floating around out there.