It's likely because I buy 'individual' license, so my costs are lower, but I'm not sure what's all that 'ridiculous' about the subscription. If you pay for a year, you get that version forever, just without updates to newer versions. VERY similar to ... back in the 90s... going to a store and buying a CD with software on it, and using it 'forever'. Eventually, it didn't work with newer stuff, so you upgraded to a new version (with more money).
Their subscriptions couldn't possibly be fairer. An annual individual license costs what, two hours of wages? And you get a perpetual fallback, and a 40% continuity discount. It's incredibly reasonable.
Even more "incredibly reasonable" behaviour: giving 30 day access to EAPs which always seem to be updated every 30 days anyway means that almost anyone could, with a bit of work, use their products for 'free' long term.
I know the price is going up in Oct, and I will likely 'buy ahead' 2-3 years at the current price now to save a bit extra.