Newer Epsons do have refillable cartridges. I'm not sure that's the solution, I'm sure they're not giving the ink away. My older Epson seems to be mostly ok, but the last time I let it sit for a couple of months I did notice that I had to run the calibration and head cleaning a couple of times before the colors came out right again.

I suspect you're right about it being mostly a money generation effort.