to be fair, original copies in the third world were non existant, thats why the ps2 was so popular, everyone was pirating

The following years are really going to suck for gaming. Sony is no longer cool with people owning their games, similar with Nintendo, who still do sell physical cartridges, only just some of them will actually contain the game. As for Xbox, it's straight up imploding right now. The only ownership-friendly option right now seems to be PC with stores like GOG, itch.io or Zoom (no, not that one).

However, all of the platforms mentioned still have one problem in common, which is likely going to persist for the next few years: hardware has gotten ridiculously expensive thanks to the AI chip crisis. Right now the smart move seems to be to stick with the hardware you have until the chip crisis blows over, unless you are comfortable with paying through the nose for a new PC or console.

Can you play discs on PS5 without making PSN account?