Is there a way (non-kludge) to buy a game for someone else?

Gift this order, at the bottom of the purchase page. You will get an option to send your order to an email.

Buy put the game into cart, check out and select "this is gift" to the right below the payment options.
You have to enter an email address - but you can use your own. The email (and the post-checkout page) will contain a gift code which can be redeemed here: https://www.gog.com/redeem

Edit: Ninja'd, as always.

: D