so, you have gigabytesper second of disk io, and the game relies on the couple of megaBITS of internet bandwidth most people have to stream textures? As opposed to downloading and installing them once as an update...
This does not pass the smell test.
You couldn't have said it any better. This doesn't make a single bit of sense and something is truly fucky here
They're inventing a technical reason to require online to make the game functional. This is insane.
Pretty sure basically all PC games in the last 20 years are candidates, it's just a matter of time. I was surprised how many big titles from the mid 2000s are no longer playable, and you know DRM hasn't gotten less dependent on remote servers since then.
It's really the only argument for buying physical console games, but even then you're rarely intended to play the version of the game that ships on the disk/cart.