Here it's important to remember that the only reason that worked for Netflix was because they could be a huge disruptor even before streaming. They IPO'd, and basically all but put Blockbuster out of business, years before they launched streaming.

Netflix could've never moved to streaming and still made a lot of people a lot of money and have been a successful business.

But if they'd been losing tons of money on DVDs, that 10 year wait between launch and streaming would've been much, much more interesting.