Indeed, the whole "you're not buying a game, you are buying a license to the game" is a bad argument that is used to justify not allowing resale.
The only party it benefits are the companies, not the people.
It also kills the joy of discovering old games in the attic when you're moving and sitting down and playing a bit, or passing on games to your kids.
I have 9000+ games on Steam and many others on EA, Ubisoft etc. Value is zero.
I recently catalogued and valued my physical game collection across multiple consoles. Value is over £10,000 and that value will only go up as time passes.
digital goods should have a place, but the issue here is that there's no equivalent physical goods replacements. And i dont think you can regulate this away.
The only force is consumer action (in aggregate). And it seems that companies have managed to train consumers not to take any action against the interests of these publishing companies.
(Barring other regulatory burdens. I think it's reasonable that you cannot legally sell on prescription drugs, for example.)