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The B&N flavor of DRM does not require any app to deal with the ascm. You can just download the ePub and open it with an app or device that uses Adobe RMSDK and implements its API correctly (pretty much all current gen apps and devices except Sony Reader at this point). I wish that more vendors used this DRM flavor (the friendliest on the planet unless you count watermarking), but I guess they assume everyone is used to the inconvenience of using ADE and any change would cost them money.
DRM free epubs will not involve an ascm file and can be downloaded directly as well from any of the stores (Kobo, Google etc.).
With Amazon even DRM free books require a Kindle or Kindle app registered to your account to download. You don't actually need to have a Kindle in hand to download DRM free books, registration is sufficient. This is only an issue if you want to read with non Amazon reading system, or just want to convert to something else. Even then, not much of an issue for most people. And if the goal is conversion, just about all of that content is available elsewhere in the desired format.
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