This is not the base online subscription, which is the part giving you access to online servers.

The so-called “expansion pack” subscription costs much more, and is only for limited access to emulators and a couple DLC for Switch games (like Mario Kart and Animal Crossing). I don’t like my games being kept hostage to a sub. This fee is literally just that.

My VC games are still there and playable on my Wii, Wii U and 3DS. I bought them (sure, technically, a licence, like every video game ever released, even physical. But let’s see them revoke it).

Everything you point out is literally working against this subscription.

You can get digital games that are not tied to a subscription, and while the download server might be shut down at some point, if you still have it on your system, it still works. NSO emulators won’t, because they routinely check whether your subscription is still active, even though everything is downloaded and runs locally on your console.

The NSO expansion pack is not the sub required for online access. Base NSO is, so if one is paying for servers, it’s just that one. Expansion pack is an extra and is only getting you access to emulators for N64, NGC, GBA, Virtual Boy etc. “If they made it a separate sub for the classic games”? That’s exactly the case.

Even if it was just one bundle for both online and classic games… Why would that be okay? There is zero technical reason for classic games to be a subscription model. Being artificially tied to an unrelated one is not an excuse.