If you hold the master lease on a space with the intention of subletting, you are a landlord. We can even argue about whether, under a triple-net lease, the owner or the tenant has more skin in the game.

I mention it because it's notable that they aren't gaining equity whilst losing cash. Just losing cash.

And this comment is worth looking at: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19488219

It’s the corporate version of what many small individual real estate investors were doing in the lead up to 2008.

In common law, for historical reasons, leases are recursable.

That said, the basic mechanic has been the subject of substantial legislative tinkering in pretty much every common law jurisdiction in the world.