The way I read his (Carmak's) statements, is that Id (or the producers, which would be Zenimax) are not planning on supplying dedicated servers. Servers cost money, lots of money. There is the server lease fees, the bandwidth fee, the support costs (maintaining the software), the technical support costs (handling user problems), the employee wages and benefits, etc. etc.
The DLC's are not an issue, as even with dedicated servers they could work out a business model to make money from that too.
The reason everyone is trying to cut corners these days is simply because the revenue is drying up. The competition is fierce for every online player's dollar. People are holding on to their money because they simply do not have the discretionary income that they used to, and many are not sure if they will even have a job a year from now.
The companies MUST recoup all of their design and production costs and then make a decent profit to even stay in business and begin the next project. Why do you think you hear of so many studio closures in the last 6 months? It's not greed, it's business survival. Look at how many studios secured millions in investment dollars and still went belly up.
Money is not the only thing, but without it a company stops being a company and simply becomes a liability to the shareholders (if publically traded) or the owners. It is far better to take a little scorn from the public and remain a viable entity, so that in the future if/when the economy recovers you can continue where you left off.
As always, just my opinion.
