Neither are written by Valve.

Valve is a contributor, so that’s not an entirely true statement. And I was replying to your original statement that “Proton is just wine”, which again, is not true.

I never said "Proton is just wine". I said "Proton is basically just Wine". Leaving out that qualifier makes a big difference.

Basically means: “in the most essential respects; fundamentally.” So in this case, no, omitting the word basically makes no meaningful change to the meaning of your sentence.