On the other hand, more players means more bandwidth and more server usage for Blizzard, which means higher costs. If everyone plays and doesn't buy anything, then they'll lose money on server costs.

If the cost of hosting a "non-purchasing" player was less than the expected revenue of hosting N non-purchasing players, they wouldn't make a freemium game.

There's no version of "I am gonna stick it to blizzard" that is concordant with "while continuing to enjoy their products." It's just rationalization because people want to minimize the cognitive dissonance that comes with maintaining their routines.

Yes, some don't stand for what they believe but rather try to rationalize why continuing playing Blizzard games isn't supporting Blizzard, or is even damaging Blizzard. Some go even so far as that they attack those that act on their believes and delete their accounts. It is surprising how far people go in their cognitive dissonance just to not do what they know is the right thing to do.

Blizzard does not have free-to-play titles because they are such kind people that want to help others out. They want a community that is engaged in the titles, that talk about it, watch videos, play it. Some of them will pay, and Blizzard wins. The thing that really hurts them is if you, yes, you, delete your account. Stop watching videos about their games, stop talking about them. Everything else is simply still supporting them, no matter how you twist it.

Blizzard loves engagement numbers and makes them feel they are robust against boycotts. You need to leave if you want to make a point.

Bandwidth costs dropped steeply around 10-15 years ago, making video streaming services much more viable. I would be astonished if game bandwidth was more than a drop in the bucket compared to that, or if a F2P gamer cost Activision Blizzard anything significant compared to what they make from the paying gamers who benefit from populated servers.

this is some insane mental gymnastics