I agree with your assessment that the lifecycle of a game is much shorter than other pieces of software, but that doesn't change the the fact that "if people do

I agree with your assessment that the lifecycle of a game is much shorter than other pieces of software, but that doesn't change the the fact that "if people don't pay for this product, all the money we spent making it will be wasted" is just how capitalism and sales work. Also, you're looking at subscriptions in games wrong. Think about micro-transactions on candy crush or similar games. Nobody charges you for monthly access to the game, they charge you for increased access to specific features.