That’s an interesting perspective. From my limited understanding, it might be plausible to prove in court. Could anyone be enticed to bring a RICO suit against them?
Ya gotta love when a corp realizes they’ve stepped in it and starts trying to create an escape route. I’m more than a little surprised that Unity’s board of directors haven’t taken the CEO’s head on a platter yet.
Simple common sense suggests that rented (subscribed) software of any kind is likely a very bad deal for the consumer. Rental where all the control rests with the publisher and not the user or creator (a la Steam) is just as bad.
Before big publishers emerged, we had exactly the try-before-you-buy situation you describe. It was called shareware. It had excellent quality control since any game that didn’t hold the player’s attention didn’t generate income. And the creator got all the revenue rather than the publisher and distributors keeping 80-90% or more.
These days, I just settle for waiting until a game appears on GOG. It’s a decent compromise.