Its is absolutely not the bigger issue....and also not even what this thread is about. MS has built their ENTIRE business model around GamePass. Sony on the other hand has not. PS Plus is complimentary to their traditional model. GP is front and center and therefore makes it way more important (to MS).
Which somewhat validates the OP and the first 20 minutes of the video I posted earlier in the thread. No matter what fud you hear from Phil and team through the media, it is not sustainable. Especially after hearing the leaked info that came out here recently.
Who really cares if a console maker sub plan are sustainable or not? It comes to value for the gamer. If MS, Sony, NF, Spotify, Disney, Hulu etc... want to scrap sub plans and go back to selling disc and digital copies go ahead. In the meantime, I'll take a deal.
It's like Columbia House where you can get tons of CDs for cheap. I know that doing their promo deals the avg CD cost me around $10. Buying them all regular price back in 1994 were like $20 CDN each. I'll take the deal as long as possible until I find it not worth doing or CH closes shop.
Video gaming is an industry where there's so many people on forums (and deal sites like CheapAssgamer back in the day) where gamers love a good deal on prices, 2 for 1 Amazon/Target deals, which places offers the best trade back value etc... Anything to save a few bucks.
Sub plans come around giving gamers an option to sub or if they want buy the game for regular price. No different than CD buying in the 90s or Disney offering movies and TV series on Disney+ or just buy the BR set on Amazon for $100 if you need a physical copy. There's options.
But I totally get it that some gamers hate sub plans because their platforms sub plan stinks, got a 33% price increase and no additional value lately. Or that they prefer collecting discs for $70 US per game and some random guy on a sub plan is paying dirt cheap money with access to 300 games which might even include the $70 US game. So the guy feels ripped off. I understand. The first guy is a physical copy purist and hopes everyone else copies his purchase pattern. Nobody likes to feel ripped off. But sub plans are an option not a forced upon service. If someone doesn't like sub plans then just buy the game or TV box set for full price.