17th year without a PC release

You're right, cloud gaming is better than nothing but access is blocked behind the Ultimate subscription which is the most expensive option, and all to play an inferior version of the game with latency issues due to streaming.  It's not ideal.

its not that big of a deal, like once the game has its worldwide release, and when it comes to Game Pass, you can just make an xbox account and playcloud gaming

You need a subscription for that, and yes it is a big deal, it is a technical workaround with plenty of issues, not a solution. PC players that use PlayStation to play NHL will have to get a Xbox gamepass ultimate subscription on top of their PlayStation subscription. I literally only have a Xbox to play NHL, I moved to PC years ago and never upgraded to a series console until NHL 25 forced me to do that, honestly not a good investment but I wanted to play 25. There is one thing PC players care about, owning their games and not needing a subscription or a internet connection to play them.