But isn't the Ultimate tier the only one that has online play included, as the base gamepass tier doesn't include it? So that's a big difference considering a lot of Microsoft's first party games have online multiplayer. It wouldn't seem to make much sense to spend $200+ per year for a subscription only to then spend even more money on games leaving the service, at least to me anyways.
Also, the games with gold offerings nowadays are just a pile of shit, and have been for quite a while, especially when compared to PS Plus Essential tier offerings. As for those loopholes available for Gamepass, yeah I am aware of them, though I highly doubt Nadella will keep them around for that much longer, especially now that the ABK merger is about to get completed. They already tightened the screws on the gold conversion for gamepass recently, and I'm sure they'll completely do away with all the loopholes by 2028 in time for the next console generation.