From the get-go, here's what has always happened when I want to launch A3:

From Steam, I select A3 from my library and click "Play" .
The A3 dashboard window opens
I click the big yellow 'play' button.
BattlEye starts, etc
The A3 logo appears with a status bar
Status bar fills
Black screen
A3 dashboard appears superimposed over the black screen
A3 splash screen appears, with A3 dashboard superimposed over it
I minimize the A3 splash
A3 goes to my task bar.
Steam library page for A3 displayed as a result
A3 and A3 launcher are running
At this point I can either select A3 and play, or close Steam and A3 launcher and play.

I have always known this is unusual but it doesn't really bug me

Happens with no mods or many mods.

No other Steam titles display this behavior. Is this a normal A3 thing or is this very odd?

Sounds decently like my own experiences, except:

I don't minimize anything. The Arma3 splash screen will eventually go away, and the Arma3 goes full screen.

Since the Arma3 splash screen *is* Arma3 (while starting), minimizing the splash screen could be why your Arma3 goes to the task bar? I'm not sure.

But yes, both the Arma3 launcher and Arma3 always run at the same time. The launcher I simply ignore.

Minimizing the splash is the only way to interact with anything. I realize the splash is A3. The launcher won't respond to any mouse input, even though it seems like the 'active' window.

Weird, yes. Like I say, doesn't bug me, just seems non-standard. I assume some system setting is the reason my experience is slightly different.

Hey whatever I can make it work!

How long does the Arma3 splash screen stay around? It takes about 30 seconds to disappear, now that I have Arma3 on SSD. When it was on my 7200 RPM HDD, it took about 2 minutes to disappear, each time I launched.

I've heard guys with a 5400 RPM drive say it took minutes longer for them. It's so slow that having to restart Arma during a mission can take an annoyingly huge chunk of play time.

I never waited, I got impatient, clicked around, and discovered the work-around. It just became my SOP.

I guess this is one more reason to go SSD.

Arma 3 with all of my add-ons takes about 2-3 minutes to load and get me to the main menu screen. I once tried an experiment and unloaded all of my mods and the game took about 20-30 seconds to load and get to the main menu screen.

Oh yes, mods are a killer. But I can't live without the 15 or 20 I have.