But they would then have to answer why would non-business buyers, that is, users who did "leave the update treadmill" and bought new updates (or skipped them) at their convenience, suffer the subscription model too?
Because they are such an irrelevant part of the market that they basically could disappear and no one would care, and the hobbyist/non-professional people who don't mind using years-old software could as well just use Free/Open alternatives?
There is nothing stopping Joe-who-only-pays-full-licences to continue using his MS 2007 Office suite, is there?
It's not merely "especially in the Apple world" - very little in the way of older Windows/DOS software still works today (unless you're also running old/unsupported hardware (subject to its own foibles) and operating systems
Products get deprecated/go out of support all the bloody time - there is nothing wrong with that: should Ford have to "support" the Edsel or Model T today "for free"? Why?
Right, which is yet another explanation of why companies moved into subscription-based models: unless you are willing to be frozen in time with all your software tools, you will be in the update treadmill one way or another. Bitrot exists, and someone needs to pay for it. A license you paid 15 years ago does not (and should not) cover that.
