It's not just a data mining cash grab. It's a bigger cash grab than that. If they had required the account link from the beginning they would not have sold the game in countries where you can't get a PlayStation account.

They clearly waited until the hype from the game settled in before they made this requirement so that they could make all of the money from the countries they don't service.

That way they could squeeze a little extra out of the player base by mining their data long enough later that players can't get a refund. Doesn't matter to them that they're forcing players in half the geological world to quit.

Truly despicable. They should be forced to issue refunds to players they are effectively kicking from the game, but something tells me nothing is going to happen.