“It makes pirating more difficult.”
Pirating is what built companies like Microsoft. Young enthusiasts would cobble together hardware and then pirate software. Microsoft made it insanely easy to pirate their software. In my opinion, this was no accident. Once the enthusiasts got familiar with the Microsoft product, they required those products when they went into the working world, (or even specified Microsoft for their companies).
I welcome the major software vendors pushing for the software as a service model. Linux has made huge strides. As vendors lock things down, Linux will grow. It’s the nature of things.
When I got my laptop, I made a decision that I wanted something that was NOT Windows for several reasons. I settled on Ubuntu Linux. I have been very happy with it so far. My wife said I was crazy to get some "weird" computer but I have not found anything that I can't do with it, except for a printer that I can't find a Linux driver for. It's simple and fast and free.