If there's a book I want to read that I don't want to put down money for up front, I already have a way to address that: the Seattle Public Library and the King County Library System, both of which are very friendly to ebookcheckouts.
And anyway, if the publisher demands that ebook licenses expire after 26 or 52 checkouts, then each checkoutdoes effectively cost the library money because it brings them that much closer to having to buy a new license.