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I mean lots of media has always worked that way. Build up the nostalgia to increase what people are willing to pay. Before VHS, Disney would lock up their movies and bring them out to theaters every couple of decades making way more money than if they put it on TV. It drives demand. And they think it should be their decision whether to satisfy that demand or not.
They called it the "Disney Vault". They did the same for VHS too, they would re-release old movies onto VHS for a limited time and then it would "Go back in the Vault". Its an annoyingly effective marketing scheme and I hate that almost all studios do this with their shows and movies now.
Same thing with DVD and Blu Ray, heck if you still buy those plastic data disks they still do it.
Yeah, just not as effective after VHS since you only have to buy it once, or just illegally copy someone else's. I think that's what Netflix mostly was used for in the DVD days. Rent the movie to be copied and shared.