AT&T planned to do this in October of 2019, when their investors met with them and demanded they divest themselves of unprofitable operations that weren't directly related to HBO Max.
I reported that this meeting was going to happen over the Summer of 2019, when I read about it in an article on CNBC. The comics industry ignored that news. Also during that time, I was told that DC Comics executives were telling their editors that if they didn't produce something amazing with this 5G project, the lights were getting shut off. I reported on that too, and no one believed me. I got that from really good sources.
The lights were always going to get shut off anyhow.
DC Comics has been tapdancing as hard as they could for a focused, debt-ridden corporation that doesn't care about them.
Yes, sales were sliding, and so SJWs convinced the comics biz to adapt and change for a different audience in order to increase sales. "If you include more trans, gays and women, you'll sell to trans, gays and women! That'll double your sales!"
That's what SJWs do. I was there, and remember my peers saying this stupid shit to me.
Instead, sales slid further, and so Marvel and DC responded to this by increasing the cover price, lowering the quality of the paper and ink, and flooding the shelves with unsellable shit with dozens of variant covers. That was the mirage you are describing in increased, but untenable, revenue. "WOKE" caused more "BROKE", it was never the answer to it.