[wintermutestwin]

>People will refuse to pay $50 once for software but will happily pay $20-$50 per month for a service

Define "people." Just because the average Joe racks up credit card debt and buys lottery tickets because they are bad at math doesn't mean that there isn't a market for wise consumers.

I am the exact opposite of your equation and flat out refuse to subscribe to anything that clearly doesn't need to be a service. (and tend to avoid the unnecessary application of a service model to SW)

>All economic incentives for the past 20+ years

...for the mass market that VCs tend to target.

And yes, I get where your data points are coming from, but there is a pendulum and no matter how rockstar your customer success folks are, the churn is going to ramp up as the pendulum swings back. (IMO of course)