Or the consoles could have a writable drive and the game disc could have a rewritable section for recording if the license is currently checked out. You could have the systems be able to install and play from the disc, while also recording that the license is checked out to that system. Then the disc wouldn't have a playable license until you unmount the license from the system and it records back to the disc partition that the license is available again. That way you wouldn't have to mess around with the disc's after initial install, but you can transfer the license back to the disc for resale when you're done with it.

It isn't hard to imagine a system that has the best of both disc and server attributes, but clearly the console companies have motivations to keep physical media constrained and inconvenient.