When people learned "recurring revenue" gets valued at, say, 10x revenue and "non-recurring revenue" gets valued at, say, 1x revenue, everyone decided to make their business look like it's recurring
If they don't, some PE will buy it and do it for them
I noticed that I've been experiencing a visceral backlash against this. There was a video talking about new woodworking products and almost every one had a recurring cost and they talked up how many patents they had. My first reaction was "I'm never buying this because I refuse to get locked into your ecosystem, and there'll be no supplier for these materials once you fold."
If they don't, some PE will buy it and do it for them