> And of course, there's practically no social value of providing the public with free bodice rippers...

Why not?

> Some of the services end up being very expensive, like ebook lending

We need something like a first-sale doctrine for electronic media. Blockchains would be ideal for tracking ownership.

If most of lending were made up of educational texts, there would be a social value. Some people describe bodice rippers as porn for women, and people get addicted to them in the same way they get addicted to porn.

Would a library ever lend porn out? I'm guessing no, because of the lack of social value. To the extent that bodice rippers are like porn, the same rationale would apply.