Comment by bluGill
Back in the day Kodak had to buy back all their instant cameras after losing to Polaroid. Though I'm not sure if law has changed since then (it has, but I'm not sure if in relevant ways), or just that they did that because no being able to make film made them useless and so buyback was a goodwill gesture.
Could that not have been because they could not sell film for them anymore, rendering them useless? So it was to make customers whole?
Edit: Missed the last part where you said the same