I don't follow. The Internet Archive only allows 1 copy of each physical book to be loaned at a time. If someone has the book you want already, then you need to wait until their loan expires. It's not like shadow libraries that allow unrestricted DRM-free downloading.

And publishers' profits are rising and don't seem to be at all correlated to library access, so of course nobody is suggesting they should close.

What am I not understanding?

Libraries are still a thing. You can still go there to borrow a book, read it, and return it, so that others can read it.

Public libraries are under assault from every direction.

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/31/1119752817/local-libraries-have-become-a-major-political-and-cultural-battleground

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/03/us/book-bans-librarians.html (apologies for nyt link)

https://apnews.com/article/book-bans-libraries-lawsuits-fines-prison-0914fa6cbb2a99b540cbbd28a38179b4

https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/5/5/23711417/republicans-want-to-defund-public-libraries-book-bans

Pretty soon you either won't find the books, or even the libraries themselves. Piracy is the only way they are leaving to us.