PlayStation Plus is much more than a subscription to just be able to play online.
It additionally gives you :
- Monthly games (2 PS4 and 1 PS5)
- Exclusive discounts
- Exclusive game content
- 100GB cloud storage
- Share Play
- The PlayStation Plus Collection (PS5)
- Game Help (PS5)
I very rarely play online and still think it's a great value proposition (I have a PS5 and never had a PS4 though).
All of this is devalued when a core functionality is locked behind this paywall. It doesn't matter if you ever use it or not - people HAVE to buy in order to play online and it's bullshit.
And let me mention that most of these things are not ever of such good value anyway.
- Monthly games (you can only use them while you pay your subscription - there are subscriptions on the PC which open up a whole library of games, rather than 2 new ones each month)
- Exclusive discounts (this is the worst deal ever - pay money so that you can pay us money again, but this time a bit less)
- Exclusive game content (skins... Mostly bad skins too. Paying for that is a terrible idea)
- 100GB cloud storage (I guess this can be useful if you need it - my pro has a 1 TB hard drive and it's enough, but still at least some actual value)
- Share Play (absolute nonsense - this function was advertised during the launch of the PS4 and I don't remember them saying it costs money)
- The PS Plus Collection (That could be valuable to those who want some of the games there and don't have them yet, however it would only have been the case if they had to pay the PSPlus once... And they don't - it's a subscription so after a few months you are losing again)
- Game Help (absolute nonsense - this function was advertised during the launch of the PS4 and I don't remember them saying it costs money, but best part of it is you can grab your Phone and simply google for help without paying)
In conclusion - it's (almost) all smoke and mirrors at a premium price.