If game is installed on switch its yours. You can always have most important for you games on drive or memory card. Also its same with digital games and primary console. No online checks.

What evidence do you have of this? Precedent shows that these companies will honor a digitally purchased copy even after servers go permanently down, so it would make sense for this practice to carry over to GKCs. Do you have any reason to reject this?

I think the issue of "I want to play the game even after the servers are down" depends on the unlikely scenario that "the servers go down" within the medium-term future.

The platforms, unlike in prior generations, all have pretty much adopted the Steam service model going forward. That means the servers will almost certainly be up in two decades, just like Steam is still up currently. Unless the company goes out of business, you'll have your current games in 20 years, playeable on multiple platforms for the same copy. 

I understand why people don't feel this will happen, given that past platforms have lost their server access, but the service model was different then than it is now. Switch purchases have followed people to Switch 2, and Switch/Switch 2 purchases are likely to follow to Switch 3. What happens then is less predictable, but the trend toward long-term, unified service models is clear.

You see, that’s a solid explanation— that makes a lot of sense to me. That said, to maybe fight back a little bit… this would only make sense in the event that Nintendo is no longer running a digital storefront/service which provides games: If Netflix shuts down, for instance, and Netflix no longer runs any form of services to provide you their films and such, then yeah, you’re out of luck. In the case of Nintendo, the equivalent of this would be Nintendo essentially going out of business or completely departing from the gaming industry. So… while you do have a solid point, we’re talking about a highly unlikely hypothetical for the next few decades minimum.

It's not hypothetical at all, companies get out of bussines constantly. You remember SEGA? Xbox is also in their last moments right now...

But aside of that, you don't need the company to go into bankruptcy, they can simply stop offering the digital storefront to cut costs. Right now digital stores are still relatively young, so we haven't seen it yet, but they are already being shut down systematically. First by removing the features related to purchase, but then comes the download features

I work with software, and let me tell you giving support to 20 year old systems can turn into a real nightmare, specially when the workforce responsible to build the systems are long gone. Sometimes it simply become impractical to keep softwares running then they give you literally get no revenue for more than a decade

For me, personally: Because it needs a download and a game card to work. With a physical card, I put the card in and play the game. With a download, I need to have the game installed but I don't need a card. With a GKC, I need to have the game downloaded and have the card with me at the same time.

Download space is precious on consoles, often your console will only fit a handful of games at once. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will apparently be over 100GB in size on Switch 2. So the internal memory would only fit two games of that size. Even with my 256GB SD Express card, I could only fit four to five games of that caliber at once. And now I need to have these games downloaded and have the card ready to play them.

If the GKC only needed to be popped in like once a month to verify the license or something it wouldn't be that bad. Right now, the only advantage to GKCs is that you can resell them, which you can't do with a digital copy, of course.

Steam and Xbox live are both nearly a quarter-century old. 

And while Xbox is probably going to soft-exit the hardware business, their service is becoming hardware-agnostic. 

It is easier to play a Steam game purchased in 2004 today, than it is to play many physical disc games released then.

I actually don't think Game-Key Cards are controversial. I think they've been universally panned.

Are they the worse thing to happen to video games? No. Are they a pox on the industry? No. They're just an awkward half-measure that satisfies no one. They're inconvenient, wasteful, and unable to meet the needs of collectors and preservationists.

I prefer Steam from console digital services, they patch the old games so they can play in newer versions of Windows.
In the other hand console services charge you for online play. I had the first 4 playstations but this gen i went pc only.

I think this is the best argument against them. Nintendo should probably have just allowed you to resell digital licenses, and take their cut out of the sale like Ebay or Gamestop do for physical games. 

Wouldn't help collectors, but the digital-only future is nearly inevitable at this point. 

Preservationists probably are just going to have to depend on piracy, unless a legal solution is found.