Technology

Well couple of things.

First, I said it gives more incentive. Not explicitly mandates it. So I'm not saying all subscription services are great to the consumer. I'm saying as a whole, it's probably better than the alternative.

Second, Netflix is a bit of a unique case I think. They essentially created the streaming industry back during blockbuster days. Nobody thought streaming rights had any value so they licensed them to Netflix for cheap. Netflix blew up because it had access to a very large catalog of media.

After companies realized they could make more money streaming things themselves, they stopped renewing the licenses to Netflix.

Netflix was very large because of their access to these licenses. If they lose the license, they over the long term lose their customers. So they took a gamble and invested heavily in self-made media in many different languages. Some were a success, like Stranger Things, but most were flops.

Essentially they became this large corporate behemoth and they are desperately trying to remain in their top hegemon spot. Once a company reaches that size, they are an entirely different animal. And unfortunately because of the way streaming rights works, you'll probably only see large corporate streaming sites in the foreseeable future