Nintendo’s mobile games aren’t developed in-house[1]. Not that it excuses it[2], but it does create a clear line for your parent commenter: as long as the focus is on playing Nintendo games on Nintendo platforms, the plan makes sense[3].

[1]: Niantic for Pokémon Go, DeNA for Mario Kart Tour.

[2]: Nintendo is bound to have the final say.

[3]: For now?

They tried a more traditional payment model with Super Mario Run and it didn't do well. Sadly I doubt they'll try again soon.

Considering they began as a playing card company perhaps it's not so surprising.

Not just any playing cards, but hanafuda cards, which fascinatingly evolved alongside government gambling crackdowns specifically to be resistant to gambling: "Though they can still be used for gambling, its structure and design is less convenient than other decks such as Kabufuda." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanafuda#History

Yes, its unfortunate. But at least its just constrained to their mobile phone games for now.