While this is being done intentionally now, it has been an issue for over a decade. - And it hasn't kept people from preserving these games in the slightest.
Even now, there is a lot of work being put into reviving games that required master servers etc. by means of reverse engineering and essentially cracking. I do however agree with you that this is not the way it should I be and I still think developers and publishers should be legally bound to either allow software that they sell to function indefinitely or release the server code when they shut down the official servers.
I think "in the slightest" may be a bit of an exaggeration. Not every game with a required server connection has been resurrected. And as this problem continues to escalate, I'm doubtful that hackers and preservationists will be able to keep up.
I play Overwatch with my sons and not only can you not run a personal server, the game frequently has fundamental mechanic changes for certain characters (and all characters in this Tuesday’s update). The Overwatch of a year ago is a very different game than is now or will be a year from now.
If someone was to provide an Open Overwatch server, I don’t even know what it would look like at this point since game clients aren’t available for particular versions (maybe on PC, but not console). When Microsoft is done with Overwatch it’ll be gone.
I actually didn't count live service games like Overwatch in this category, to be honest.
Overwatch is deliberately designed as an ever evolving service instead of a product you purchase. With games like these, there is no way to ever archive them, since there is no canonical state in which the game remains for any sensible amount of time.
I understand that this is a cause of frustration and that there's a lot of issues with this but I'd keep those separate from one-time-purchase products which fortunately is still what games mostly are [...for now].
Even now, there is a lot of work being put into reviving games that required master servers etc. by means of reverse engineering and essentially cracking. I do however agree with you that this is not the way it should I be and I still think developers and publishers should be legally bound to either allow software that they sell to function indefinitely or release the server code when they shut down the official servers.