[reprodev]

Hi OP here, thanks for reading this and really I'm really glad for your take on this. I get the whole "you need a time machine" to get a good deal and I've definitely missed out on some great ones over the years. I guess this is more for people who already have the deal and for those coming into it fresh today as the information especially from LLMs is so all over the place when I've had folks tell them that ChatGPT said this and not that.

I tried to balance it as best I can with me already having that lifetime licence and it's kind of unfair to those who never got it. Maybe it's just a precursor of things to come within tech as people try to monetise things monthly on roadmaps which promise massive potential rather than having faith in their original products.

I still think it's a great deal and I hope that came across but $750 now vs $119 when you got it is definitely the point where you have to think about the alternatives out there.

I'm lucky to have the years of XP and watched it go from a great alternative to also being something that has suffered from feature creep as it tries to be everything to everyone. This doesn't mean my opinion is any better or even more right than anyone else, it's just my opinion having been through some major touch points in tech history. Even trying to explain the price changes and things that you don't get for the monthly fee to others sends me in circles as it changes so frequently.

That unlimited updates thing for a low price is the main reason why it's such a great deal and as time goes on I truly hope it keep innovating as best it can maybe leveraging those brand deals it has which were built on the initial consumer trust it built so well.