I'm sure the MLB owners look at their brethren in the NFL, NBA, and NHL with green envy. It is impossible to lose money owning a team in the first 2, and the only money losers in the NHL are bad teams in bad markets (Arizona), and even there the money drain is capped.
Owners in all leagues think alike: money being paid to the players is money coming out of their own pockets. There is no thought of long term consequences, or the idea of fan interest. It's entirely about cost certainty. There are certainly some differences among owners, but those tend to be minor. Not every NFL owner called their players "cattle", but no owner in any league pushed back on that comment either.
The season long NHL lockout of 2004 remains a warning sign, as there is nothing to prevent the same to happening to MLB. The biggest problem then was that the NHLPA had zero leadership, and so completely underestimated the owners' resolve, and then foolishly tried the same thing again a few years later to similarly disastrous results. The MLBPA has a much better track record (although Marvin Miller is long gone), and the players are in this case right to be peeved with the current CBT/arbitration system. And while the players "won" in 1994, it took a long time to recover from the PR beating they took.
All of this will all be mostly a footnote if the season starts by Memorial Day. But if it goes past that things will get ugly, and the season-ending scenario definitely comes into play.