This is what desperation looks like. Nothing they can do will reverse the trend--its bigger than a single company. HP has its numbers to hit.. but are completely powerless to make it grow. So they do things like this, trying to slow the decline for themselves personally... but push more consumers away, accelerating the trend and the decline of their business.
I think the model is starting to show its cracks.. the old model was: buy a printer at a discount, pay us for ink. But if consumers are printing less, they're buying less ink, making it even harder to get back that printer discount. So HP needs to squeeze all of the ink sales out of the consumer they can... maybe if they can push out 3rd party ink, they can delay changing the business model for a little bit longer. But thats going to get harder every single year (if its even realistic).
I've owned lots of printers over the years, including a few HPs... I currently own 0 printers. And dealing with stuff like this is a small part why, but the bigger reason is: dont need a printer.
As far as I can tell, printing return shipping labels is the main reason to own a printer these days.
And even those often aren't needed, as UPS will sometimes scan a QR and print the label themselves. Or dropping off Amazon at Whole Foods.
But frequently enough there's no way around it. And if you don't go to an office frequently enough to use that printer, and buy things online (especially clothing) -- you still need one at home.
Though, I'm pretty sure I'd just spring for a thermal printer if they made toner maintenance impractical too, personally speaking.