I think you can't constantly restrict the capability of things to suit small minorities that are in an unfortunate position. Otherwise a small number of people will be holding everyone else back for years.
But in the end the market will do the talking because there is no business reason to support a tiny number of people like the armed forces at the expense of everyone else.
It only takes something like Steam boxes offering cheap digital download only games (and mandatory online) a few years from now when the current consoles are looking dated and that will be the end of this silliness. If enough people that don't live in barracks (the massive majority) say feck this crap and move over to an online based system then it will be game over.
I see what your saying, but having a mandatory daily sign-in is utterly pointless. What is the advantage of having it over not having it? Unless its some sort of security feature, I don't see the point in it? Its never been an issue before, so why suddenly have it?
For example, lets say that Microsoft decided to incorporate it. You instantly rule out probably a few hundred thousand sales (yes, the minority, but still a lot!).
Now let's say that Microsoft DON'T include it. Those with Internet can still access everything, whenever they want,
24/7, so they aren't losing out, but this time, those couple of hundred thousand who previously couldent even use the console, Now CAN.
Its a complete no-brainer and nobody loses.