They need some insurance you will spend some money after having a tech come out and also upgrade the receivers.
If its a question of loyalty, in the case of the OP, he stayed with Dish for 5 years after the contract was up. In my case its been about 7-8 years. That should account for something, shouldn't it?. I have been a loyal Dish customer and one of the perks should be to not have to sign a new 2-year agreement to upgrade a 612 to a 722. Furthermore, why would a subscriber upgrade a receiver if their intention is to move on to another provider? Do we get to keep a leased receiver?
And while true you can save more by being a new customer with another carrier, you are signing a two year contract with them too. So you can't be against a two year contact.
The point is, if I have shown that I am a loyal customer, why require a new contract?
And then, Dish is giving a little more now for discounts than they used to from posts I am seeing, so the savings gap is not as large. I think if you can just pay a $15 fee, and a two year contract, that's not bad. (And now only $50 for a Hoppa) But it's been posted and talked about over and over, the industry is, the new subscriber is given the biggest discount, with a two year contract, the hope being you won't want to switch after the two years.
I can understand requiring a new subscriber to sign a 2-year agreement. Dish is giving the newbie some nice deals, nothing wrong in making sure they hang around awhile. Asking a long-time subscriber to sign a new agreement is really beating the crud out of a dead horse.