They're a necessary evil because Nintendo chose a very expensive physical format. Many publishers would likely have gone code-in-box or digital only with switch 2 if key cards didn't exist.

Nintendo charged publishers $15 for a 64GB cart compared to a 100GB BDXL Blu-ray being more like $2.

Because of the nand price crisis those 64GB carts probably cost Nintendo at least $20 to make now, so Nintendo may infact be losing money selling them to third parties if they haven't changed how much they charge them.

A slower cheaper physical storage that had mandatory installs would have been the better play to get releases with the data on cart/disc.

I just bought the switch 1 game 2 weeks ago.

This is not a Nintendo-owned developer so even though it is Nintendo published it follows the Pokopia trend of a GKC for a Nintendo title not developed by an internal developer.
Still a shame.

Hope they dont work much with Koei Tecmo anymore. Team up with someone who care instead.

I mean Nintendo as the publisher are ultimately the ones manufacturing and distributing the game. The developer doesn't print the disc/cartridges or package the boxes.

So why Nintendo uses GKC for these second party releases I don't know, but ultimately they have the control. If Nintendo wanted Pokopia or this on a cartridge they could absolutely make it happen.

Obviously Koei Tecmo doesnt want to because they make less money per copy sold. They are the one making the game, so they decide.

That's... Really not how it works. But ok. xD

You have an uncle working at Nintendo or what...? Nintendo letting their partners decide how they release their games seems like how it works to me...