Sony's always kind of been uncool like this. Before, all PSN games weren't available on PC, so it didn't affect regions that couldn't register for PSN.
I love this thing where buying something has been replaced by buying an alterable, revokable license to access that thing. It lowers costs and adds flexibility for producers, which allows them to save money, and they pass that savings on to me in the form of higher prices and my shit that I paid real fucking money for just disappearing one day. Then they explain that I never really "owned" it despite the fact that they use the word "own" in the marketing material, because it's also legal to use words that have known definitions in agreements and then later explain that you were actually using an entirely different, secret definition of that word that's actually the opposite of what you very purposefully implied.
It makes sense to delist games you can't play in another country due to not being able to make an account so that someone doesn't buy your game and then go for an automatic refund after finding out they can't play it, but still a dick move.
They signed a contract with Sony saying they'd require PSN to play the game. They knew this would be a requirement. It's not like PSN suddenly isn't available worldwide. They were fine with the deal until players got upset and now they want out of the deal to save face.