The last time a major vendor seriously contemplated something like this, Sony made a 45 second ad completely humiliating them, destroying any and all goodwill that vendor had built up over the 6th and 7th generations, and won the early years of the 8th generation more or less for free. Never underestimate to what extent people value things like being able to play games offline and not having to deal with obtrusive checks tied to a centralized service.

Why would they do that when their business is selling hardware? You make it seem like they are being foolish or unreasonable. They aren't Netflix