Someone found a launch option which skips the launcher for you without the extra steps.
I'm leaving the rest of the guide at the bottom in case the launch option ever stops working or doesn't work on all platforms etc.


You can get to the launch options by right-clicking SoSE2 in your Steam Library


Add the option like so:

You can edit the settings in-game or externally via the file, I detail the in-game method below, although the settings have the same name regardless of method.

Open the game, Press CTRL+SHIFT+S
You can drag the edge to expand the window and the line between the columns so you can read the names.



At the top under reset, search "intro" then select 'true'
It will change to false as below. This disables the cinematic.




Within the menu described above:

Search for "DPI" then enter a number beside dpi_scale_factor
Remember it's a % so 0.5 is 50% and you can see changes after pressing Enter if in-game.



If you need to restore the default, you can select the option reset_to_pick_best_dpi_factor. Alternatively, press the Reset button at the top.

To manually ensure the game launches without the launcher, follow the below steps. These work on ANY game which has a launcher whereas the above launch option is specific to SoSE2.

Go to your Steam Library,
Right-click SoSE2, select Manage > and then Browse local files




You should see the folder containing the Sins2.exe


Select Sins2.exe, then shift + right-click on it. This opens the context menu with extra options.
Select Copy as Path, this copies the direct path to the file enclosed in speechmarks.





Return to your Steam Library and right-click SoSE2, select Properties







In Launch Options, paste the path we copied from before.
Do not delete the speech marks

Finally, add a space and append %command%.




Press play and you'll go straight to the game.

If you want to undo this, simply remove the launch option and it'll open the launcher as before.