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I don’t think the e-reading market can sustain four different companies doing the exact same thing.
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What does the amount of subscription service providers have to do with them being sustainable? It is called competition. There is lots of companies doing the exact same which are sustainable and have been for a long time. Throwing more subscribers at the service is not going to help with sustainability if those new subscribers on average cost more money than they pay in. The other way to raise more money would be through raising the price of the subscription. By doing that there will be a great chance that subscribers that create income (read less than what they pay) will jump ship. Prices have to be raised again. Lower the payout per read, and publishers will jump ship resulting in less content which will make subscribers jump ship.
A service that has unlimited reads per month including a fixed payout per read (e.g. 60% of list) without any other benefits may never be sustainable. Add perks to it that attracts subscribers that are not likely to "over-borrow" and it may work. A combination of unlimited borrows and credits to purchase (Scribd type of subscription combined with Entitle type of subscription) might possibly attract enough subscribers that don't over-borrow AND use up every credit per month.