It’s entirely cash based. Sure, some parts are “non-profit”, but at the root of it, they depend on cash based services that can pull the plug at any time.

It’s also completely controlled, directly or indirectly, by localized political regimes.

Correct, except that more people buying used laptops will incentivize people to upgrade more often as they can depend on a strong secondhand market to recoup some of the cost of the new one by selling the old one.

I’ve used it the last few years to do Advent of Code (https://adventofcode.com/) and that’s been fun and challenging. Definitely recommend it. Better than trolling through a book of “now do this” examples if you’ve done other languages in the past.

While I agree with that math, I feel like if they add the virtual console, they could capitalize on the purchase of third party developer games that they can’t license for subscriptions for the current model. Maybe they’ll go with a blended approach, where some games are based on the sub and there are others that are up charges or purchases as well where they take a bit off the top when selling older games for the virtual console.