any of the thousands of games that predate “the cloud” or games that don’t even have a save feature.

Well sure, but those games were all made with that specific context in mind. You don’t simply start over BotW each time and have as good of an experience, because that’s not how it was designed. You don’t design 25+ hours worth of content for a campaign and expect it to be fine for players to lose their progress. This is a portal gaming handheld we’re talking about. You can drop it. You can lose it. Spills happen. SD cards get corrupted.

Besides, if you’re not paying for the service, you’re the product not the consumer.

It wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t a walled garden. Forcing payment for a basic feature plus not allowing any alternatives is classic anti-competitive behavior.