Here are the profit margin records for EA and Activision. I do not know a great deal about this kind of data, but I have been told that a healthy profit margin is 25%, both companies are below it. Activision, EA, and Ubisoft are all below that.
AAA games are a very volatile business, and these companies are doing fine but all it takes are a few missteps to totally sink them. And it would be absolutely terrible if these companies collapsed because there are thousands of good, hardworking, and passionate people making these games that would be out of a job.
Honestly, my take on MTX as they are currently being implemented is that they are the last resort. AAA studios have tried everything to increase the base price of a game (which has not changed in 20 years despite vast economical changes). Preorder bonuses, deluxe editions, etc. were all ways to change $60 to $80. And that clearly isn't enough. Game studios have hundreds of employees now, a huge leap from the 20-30 man teams you would see 20 years ago. Do you remember when Square Enix was saying Hitman Absolution and Tomb Raider would not be continued because they only sold like 1 million copies? It's because AAA games are so expensive now. And another thing, AAA games are all that is in demand. If studios could make smaller games, they would. But they can't because gamers keep asking for more content, more replayability. Games today have more content than they have ever had before, and that content is also more expensive than it has ever been. Back in the day, you could copy&paste some enemies and write a quest and you have an hour of an RPG. Now, the production values keep going up and up and at this point, it's to satisfy people more than it is to innovate.
It sucks that the MTX conversation is polluted with memes and reckless raging about corporate greed. Lootboxes are controversial and they should be discussed, but a big part of that discussion is that games are too expensive to not have them. That is a stone cold fact and I don't know why people have a hard time believing it.