[TomOfTTB]

Here's my explanation from experience...

99% of writing code is basic stuff that anyone out of school can do.

(Yes I made 99% up out of thin air but in my experience it's reasonably accurate)

In the world there are a lot of programmers that can do 99% of the work fine but who freeze at a problem. This isn't meant as a criticism. These people are good workers, good citizens, and so on. But in my experience they are the type of people who got a CS degree because they heard "it was the future" and are happy with a 9 to 5 job where they don't have to think about technology or code past 5:01 PM

When you supervise coding in a corporate environment you generally have 1 or 2 stars and then a bunch of other guys who fit the above description. You don't want your stars constantly being distracted by the others when they hit a problem so you seek out tools with support contracts. Then when someone hits a problem they file a support request and move on to something else until they get a response.

When support solves the problem those guys go back to coding the 99% of the stuff that they can do and everyone's happy for a fraction of the price.

$399 a year is cheap when it allows you to hire programmers who are competent but not stars (and who are accordingly cheaper)