Another possibility: the console vendors are catching whiff of the whole gate keeper mess, and they don’t want to be at risk of being forced to open up their physical cartridge DRM mechanisms to allow third party cartridges for the relatively small EU market (compared to the rest of the world). Moving towards digital is much easier as result.

It is also clear as day that they’re testing the waters with Nintendo players who are generally deemed to be more casual, and lesser likely to push back compared to the more savvy other major consoles. Once this blows over, they will just move to digital everything across the board, citing successes and cost savings on the other platforms as basis for the move.