That's a good question and I'm not sure I'll have an answer for you but I'll try and explain my thought process. I look at technology similar to this (this seems more benign than some) as extracting as much value from people as possible. It's not a question of "what can I charge to live comfortably and have a great life" but how can I extract as much revenue as possible from my customers.
The big companies are masters of this and continue to get better as computing gets faster. It worries me a great deal that everything is or has become a monthly payment in perpetuity.
Kyle Poyar [1] has a great article [2] on why usage-based (i.e. having that monthly payment change with usage) is more optimal (and arguably more fair).
In some deeper sense though, I commiserate with your point on technology being alienating through its strive to over-optimize everything. Except, I think much of this friction will inevitably have to be solved by further application of technology itself -- it's always a double edged sword..
In our case, as Abel explained, one of the things we're trying to solve are very apparent international mispricings.
Growing up in post-communist E Europe in the 90s I remember buying pirated games from street vendors. An unawareness of international pricing can easily price out many a potential client! :)
The big companies are masters of this and continue to get better as computing gets faster. It worries me a great deal that everything is or has become a monthly payment in perpetuity.