We don't owe it anything. We can change it any time, with sufficient willpower. That takes a lot more than just imagination - but if we can't even imagine a universe where an absurdly wealthy and powerful professional athlete can just say "pass" to the unnecessary nonsense that her job pretends it can impose on her, then it's definitely never going to change.

Or, to put it another way, what's actually at stake here? It's a tennis tournament, run by sports bureaucrats and funded by sponsors. They're gonna find a way to get their cut, but they're not responsible for the public's interest in the French Open. The players are, and the sport (any sport) needs one of those groups a lot more than the others.