The rented mainframes were, imo, far less egregious than what's awaiting all of us. It'd probably be less "massive B2B transactions to cut down on costs and outsource operating a hugely complex machine to its manufacturer", and more "everyone participating in society making mandatory perpetual payments to be allowed to use tightly-controlled devices that they must manage their entire lives through".

> making mandatory perpetual payments to be allowed to use tightly-controlled devices that they must manage their entire lives through

This is the mainframe experience for companies that run on z/OS, the licensing makes Azure look simple by comparison

https://ibmlicensingexperts.com/ibm-mainframe-licensing-z-sy...