That’s the sort of argument that would also support the earlier Marvel film rights grants for X-Men and Spider-Man and Fantastic Four and so forth–not that I know that you have any issue with them, only that so many fans seem to.

It is completely up to the rights-holder what they want to do with their intellectual property. They are under no obligation to license or even do anything with it simply because there are some other people who would like to see a film or reprinted comics or whatever.