[sanderjd]

A eureka moment is realizing that customers interests are actually aligned with businesses being profitable. If the business provides the customer with something they want - and they usually do, if the customer is willing to pay them money at all - then it is in their best interest for the business to continue operating, which means it is in their interest for the business to have a profitable business model. This is part of why you see a bias toward big companies winning sales, even at a higher price point: there is less risk that they will go out of business and leave you in a lurch. It isn't actually in the customers interest for a business to barely or not at all be able to make ends meet, which is what your proposed business model has often led to.

[Denzel]

I'm not disputing that customer interests are aligned with a business's profitability insomuch as they'll be around to continue to provide you the product or service you want. We agree here.

I'm simply wondering if there's a "your margin is my opportunity" play here where a company could devour SaaS companies by changing the distribution model. That's all. This thought has been banging around in my head for the past couple years due to a few data points, but I haven't had time to formally test the hypothesis.

That's all it is: a hypothesis that there's an opportunity here to change the distribution model to one that focuses on the customer and destroy a large number of SaaS models.

[sanderjd]

I think what you need to consider is how that opportunity looks different than the business models that SaaS overtook, and how it solves the problems that led to those models being overtaken. I'm sure SaaS isn't the last software business model we'll ever have, but your response to the list of questions read to me like it lacked understanding of why SaaS won the most recent battle.