[0xy]

That's because the average chess player would rather pay a $9.99/month subscription than pay $0.10/game. Even if they played less than 100 games a month this would be true.

Consumers despise paying for usage. They'd rather pay a monthly fee and have unlimited usage.

[phoinix]

Consumers are different with one another. I would gladly pay, for something i like, a bit more money to have some luxuries. A faster car may be it, or maybe i pay to lichess, to pair me for a game with good players, so as not to be cheated for example. Or maybe analysing my games, with some state of the art chess engine to spot mistakes or improvements. Other chess players however may not be so keen about more, just play a game and that's it.