[mantap]

One time fees make software development into something resembling a pyramid scheme. Software development costs are recurring, if you hire someone they get paid every month not just once. So the developers must continually find new customers in order to support the old ones. At the point when they can no longer do so, the scheme collapses and everybody loses out.

[samatman]

I understand that, but we had a solution to this which worked fine: upgrades.

A number of trends have made this unpopular, and yeah, Apple deserves a big chunk of the blame, but by no means all of it.

But this has been explored fairly well elsewhere, so I'll refrain except to say: I do hope the steps are taken to reverse this unfortunate trend, because shoehorning subscriptions in where it's a bad fit is no kind of solution.