If you don’t see value in ownership, then yeah, you “saved” money. But that’s on you.

There is little value in owning a game that you will never play again after the initial play-though, so if you get to play the game for less than it would have cost to buy, then yeah, money was “saved”. That’s why people are happy to pay for streaming services where they can watch content for significantly less money than if they went out and bought DVDs of all the movies/shows that they very likely will never watch again.

You’re also missing the part where they’re undercharging for the service in order to increase adoption, after which they will turn up the costs.

Do you really think people paying for Game Pass are unaware of the monthly cost?