It is implied: most people do expect to keep a game if they buy it. There's no expectation to keep an arcade machine after inserting coins. Everyone who paid for extra lives or whatever powerups should have done so with a clear expectation that the online game that they haven't purchased will die eventually. Nobody is being duped or betrayed.

Giving it out for free would be nice and probably wouldn't cost them too much, but it's also unreasonable to demand something that was never promised. Damn, I can't believe I'm defending some free-to-play pay-to-win microtransaction online service hell game, but I guess even they can do something right not wrong every now and then.

So you're required to spend money on in game purchases to play?

I play a "freemium" game and haven't spent a penny on it.

I'm not arguing in favor of the exploitative tactics those companies use to dupe people out of money, but you can still play most of them without paying.

It's absolutely within the realm of possibility that a chunk of the people that would buy a lifetime license are people who haven't spent any money on it so far.

And this is still a very rare move for a game company, and it's a trend that needs to start. Don't let perfect stand in the way of good.