With more and more games being F2P these days, or at least Free-ish to play, like Free Realms and many many others, saying you have eleventy-zillion "subscribers" doesn't mean much.

It's an interesting figure but not one that necessarily shows the whole picture.

But as most people likely realize as well is that we are dealing with the same phenomenon that makes public companies slaves to the Quarterly Report: namely that in the end this is about money. They have to get money from somewhere (i.e. Wall Street, Venture Capitalists, etc), and whomever gives you money expects a return. So you have to keep them happy, usually with some kind of number indicating success. Investors don't care if you have a quality product, but care that you have some kind of numerical indicator that means they should be getting their money back plus interest in a bit.

None of this says you are wrong: many companies would be much better off if they did not follow the money every three months, just like your suggestions would likely make for a better experience. But we have not been able to break the mold on Wall Street. I hope we have better success here!