Some of us don't want to 'drop' parts of our service as a solution to these supposed equipment price increases. Yes, the Movie Premiums show many movies/series repeatedly, but I camp on these channels more than anything else. With E*, I have 31 HD Movie Premiums (32 with HBO Latino) that are important to me. And yes, I have two Roku boxes with a Netflix subscription.
Be assured that E*'s finance department has thoroughly reviewed the breakage of revenue lost from people downgrading versus revenue gained from these increases. E* wouldn't be doing this if revenue wasn't going to be a net add.
Finally, there will eventually be a point where there won't be anything left to drop down to, year over year, if 'dropping' things off our accounts is the 'solution' to these increases.