the big tv money is, the national tv contract. So from their perspective, more regular season games without national tv money is significantly less attractive than making sure the playoffs get held. As such, each additional week of "regular season" baseball above 80 puts the season closer and closer to the normal time that flu cases go up, and apparently many believe, the same thing will happen with coronavirus.

MLB would rather have 80 games and playoffs versus 100 games and then cancelled playoffs, I'd assume most would feel that way as well.