It's very much not a side issue, it's powerful players completely warping the discussion by abusing their power in order to emotionally load their argument.
If consumers framed subscription services as literally rape that wouldn't be a side issue either.
Yeah, we’ve had this discussion for at least 30 years now. I don’t buy it, because everyone ought to know that piracy can’t be made legal without killing much of the products. All that’d be left would be Kickstarter- and Patreon-style projects.
I'm sorry but no, "We" as in "Us in society" haven't had this discussion, in fact literal billions have been spent towards preventing this discussion from happening.
I'm not saying that every piece of data should be free to sell and distribute always, but the current state of intellectual property and DRM is nothing sort of a disgrace.
If consumers framed subscription services as literally rape that wouldn't be a side issue either.