I'm torn on this approach on the Xbox One licensing - in part because I still don't understand exactly what Microsoft is describing. To DavidinCT's point, the Xbox One approach definitely de-emphazises physical media and in many ways just makes physical media an alternate "download" method. In other words, rather than downloading possibly tens of GB for a game, you just install from a disc, but otherwise it will be treated like a download. Well, not exactly, because it may still be possible to resell a used disc depending on the publisher. So it's a weird hybrid.
In a way, I can see a logic for this. Physical media is trending away in general and I think it's likely that the transition to primarily digital downloads will happen over this next console generation; it's difficult for me to imagine a next generation of consoles after the Xbox One and PS4 (say coming out around 2020) still depending on physical media. So I can see that downloaded games will become steadily more important over the next several years, and the issues with physical media will become less important. So maybe any problems with the licensing approach won't matter in the long term, but may still cause acceptance problems in the near future.
The thing is, though, that to give up the benefits of physical media for downloads (reselling games, buying used, etc.), I'd want something in return, and I imagine most people will as well. So one thing is lower prices compared with new physical media purchases, like the Steam sales, and MS does a little of this with their game sales, but not anywhere near to the same degree. It'll be interesting to see pricing for Xbox ONE games, though, given the potential restrictions.
Another thing that would be helpful to me, having multiple consoles and a couple of kids who game as well, is an ability to share the games among devices and user accounts. This is common on the iOS/Android/Windows 8 app stores. The Xbox 360 already does this to an extent since downloaded games can be played by any account on the console that it was purchased on, and also under the purchaser's account on another console. In fact, I recently learned that that two copies of a single digital download game purchase can be running at the same time. I haven't tested it very much, but I downloaded Call of Duty 4 under my account, and while my son was logged in on his account and playing it (on the console I purchased it on), I was able to sign in with my account on another console and we could play a multiplayer system link game together. That's all we tried, so I don't know if we could also go online together. So I'll be interested to see exactly what the details of the family sharing licensing are for the Xbox ONE. Granted, this won't mean much for someone without a family. Well, maybe it depends just how....."non-traditional" Microsoft allows families to be defined.