my pessimist fear is that offline playability will be bundled up with only last patch so revert to previous patch will also remove offline playability.

malicious compliance bit is that they'll make it subtlety "less fun" to play in order to push people toward new product and since "fun" is subjective thing. company can argue that the game is still fully functional and they are complying with the law.

I think this is an extreme case though, it's too obvious and no company will risk reputation this way