Do XBOX discs actually contain game data anymore?

Set your console to offline and it'll let you install the game from the disc. There may still be some updates that need to install when you reconnect, but they shouldn't be too large.

what happened to those days is that people stopped buying movies on disc which is the primary thing that keeps pressing plants open and North America alone went from six facilities to one

This facility has been overcapacity for many years and they're only starting to get new plants online.

Due to the loads, these discs are often pressed months ahead of time before the game is ready. It used to be that there was a 10 day lead time, maybe 2 to 3 weeks for a really big title. Now it's months. Barbie was almost not released on 4K Blu-ray for Christmas because there was no capacity until they bought line time from Universal

As most major US retailers have stopped carrying physical game media, I don't feel that the status quo is likely to change anytime soon

you are looking at write able. blanks, they are an extremely specialty item which is why they are so expensive

Pressed discs are typically under a dollar each.

and that's not what I said, they can't do that because they don't have the game. The game is not ready so they cannot put it on the disc so all they put on there as a key file and loader.

Another main reason is games got bigger and discs haven't got bigger. and as SwordofWhedon said because the factories are so over capacity they cant just print 2-3 discs for install. The biggest disc size we have is a 128 GB blue-ray XL but they cost a fortune, ($20-50 CAD per disc but could be cheaper if bought in bulk) and so a game like Halo MCC (assuming it was a new copy from Microsoft complete with all patches and Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach) would be $80 CAD. Way more than the games price point of $50 CAD. So instead just get a small 18 GB blue-ray and put some of the game and the licence, and then profit margins more than account for the $0.50 CAD that Microsoft would spend on manufacturing the game.

EDIT: Made 1 sentence make more sense

I have no idea what your ramblings have to do with my question.