Yes, that is the last paying option left. Obviously, that's not appealing though, so I'm more likely to seek out alternatives.

I think the subtext is: you don't have a problem. You have a single-household Netflix account. You're the kind of account Netflix likes.

I'm not sure I agree. If the choices are:

I can keep my account and downgrade my plan and then pay for a separate account for my Mom, then they would make about the same or even less money. They certainly won't be getting any ad revenue from either account.

I can cancel my account outright and get my content through alternative methods where Netflix is not compensated.

It seems to me the choice is obvious here and the calculus doesn't swing in Netflix's favor. Perhaps for the majority of the subscriber population it will, but that's a bit of a gamble when my generation and really every other generation after grew up knowing how to pirate whatever they wanted.

If your mom is the only user, what is the difference to you?

She's not the _only_ user, it's just that my "households" usage doesn't justify the expense and effort.

And the other subtext is: paying for an account that's usable only in the other single-household is unattractive enough to seek alternatives instead of keeping the subscription.

The difference is that there's no reason to keep the expensive 4k account.

The Premium plan is 4k streaming, and up to 4 devices. But now they want to keep those two features bundled, while limiting your ability to stream to 4 devices (because now they'll all need to be in the same house). Sharing my account was my reason to suck that up and pay 20 bucks a month for 4k streaming.

Now only I can watch it, or in OP comment's case only his mom can watch it, so there's no reason to not just switch to the basic plan with 720p for 10 bucks a month. Point is, there will be cancellations, but also a ton of people halving their subscription cost. It's going to hurt Netflix on both ends.

It will just be cancellations. No one is going to 720p. Not sure how you could think that.

There are more than just cancellations and downgrades to consider. Netflix will make money from people who pay for their own accounts and from their new revenue stream of ads. There's also a very noticeable image quality difference between 4k and 720p, so there's no reason to assume the basic plan is what everyone will downgrade to like yourself.