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It's not an impossible situation--everyone would like ebook subscriptions to be available, and that's a strong motivator to find terms that authors, publishers, distributors and readers all agree to--but it's an entirely *new* economic and technological model in an industry that's known for "this is how it's always been done" contracts and digging in its heels to avoid new technology for as long as it possibly can.
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Glad you agree its possible: I never said it was going to be quick or easy. It's going to be one gigantic lawyer-fest before everything is set up, I'm sure.
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The hard limits:
Readers will pay maybe $10-15/month for content. Whether that's a limited pool ("up to three books per month for $10/month") or an unlimited all-you-can-read from the basic catalog, or some kind of crossover, doesn't matter. The sweet spot for subscribe-to-entertainment is between $5 and $20 a month, and for $20 they'd have to provide a side of dancing boys and chats with pornstars. Which some MMORPGs can offer; ebook publishers can't.
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The current Netflix top rate is three DVDS at any time, plus $8 for streaming. They are having a tough time keeping subscribers with that, so I agree with you. somewhere in the $8-20 range.
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While the number of cloud-based devices is going up, I don't think it's high enough yet to support a business model that's going to have a high number of technical & legal setup problems. (Notice how Apple is *not* releasing any iBookstore sales numbers?)
I like the idea of ebook subscriptions; I don't see a way to make it work like Netflix or Pandora.
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I'm sure that authors , publishers, and content distributors are going to fight it out about how the pie will be divided. It was ever thus, yet somehow, rental and cloud-based subscription services for movies and music were set up and the various problems with customer service and technology were overcome.
My guess is that a cloud-based book subscription service will not be exactly like Pandora or Netflix, any more than Pandora and Netflix are exactly like each other. There is a successful model for e-books out there, just like there are ones for other digital media. The trick will be to find the right model and it probably won't be the first one rolled oout to the public.