Subscriptions also make software more affordable for those breaking into industries. I, along with many peers, pirated Photoshop for years. That’s not necessary when I can get Creative Suite for $10 per month. It’s actually been free for me for the past couple years because I upload stock photos.
Both Adobe and the consumer come out ahead in a world where the consumer doesn’t have to pirate software.
You left out the option of "Purchase the full software package for a single flat cost equal to 1 year's subscription fee today". Taken from the brief period when companies offered offline packages.
The truth is that a lot of users don't need the latest and greatest. They need the software to do a few things, and if that software is 5 years old it doesn't matter.
Software companies don't like this, so they instead switched to a subscription model that forces users to constantly upgrade despite not needing anything new. It's a truly scummy business model.
The vehicle is a physical thing and the maintenance of that physical thing is paid for by the consumer by taking it to a LOCAL shop. When I can get the software in my vehicle maintained by a local shop such that I choose the price points, then we can talk.
Until that happens, this is about profits and lockin and will eventually become illegal in the same way that it became illegal for car manufacturers to sell their own vehicles in many (most?) states.
This is plain old lobbying from car dealers. It has nothing to do with customer protection.
Or maybe you support making it illegal in a similar way for Apple to have Apple stores and instead demand that Apple sells it's Macbooks and phones in non-Apple stores, together with Microsoft and Samsung.
