There is definitely a benifit, it just doesn't necessarily have to be for the bottom line. If you are running a major publisher you are likely spending public shareholders money or executive partners money (with some skin in the game yourself) on these games.

At the very least based on the consistency some publishers use Drm we know getting Drm buys piece of mind/job security that whoever is managing the project is doing something to prevent shrink/theft.

It's like the ad line goes, nobody ever gets fired for buying an IBM.

There is safety in doing the best practice or industry standard.

That all said, it's entirely possible there is hard data out there that strongly suggests there is a cost benifit too it, and it's just not public data.

… there is probably some benefit.

I was not thinking about the business side but rather about what the customer gets out of it. What bothers me about DRM systems is that they cause problems that you don't have with pirated game, which is the opposite of how it should be. I don't want to struggle to get a game running, when the pirated version does not caus those problems. That being said, I haven't bought any large AAA title in years and my experience is from 7+ years ago. Maybe things have changed but I kinda doubt it.