Even when it's a disc you still need to download a shit ton of data. It won't just play on its own without an internet connection. They can always just decline to let you download the necessary data. You don't own it either way.

This isn't the first game to do this, this has been happening for a while. Switch had a number of games where you only got a digital download code and PC games were doing that for years before they stopped having physical releases.

Exactly. They're effectively killing off the used market.

Would it be better if it was on a piece of cardboard with the code behind a scratch off section?