Looking at it objectively I could budget and purchase the full cost price and then keep using it until windows eventually breaks it (unlikely). With subscriptions once you stop paying, goodbye app.
Sure, but my point was that that’s not actually rational. There’s a lot of objective stuff not being taken into account whenever you compare something finite (“12 months of use”) to something infinite (“permenant ownership”).
How long are you actually going to use it? For some people (I expect a very small minority) the answer could genuinely be “more than 4 years”, but in my case and in the case of anyone buying it for commercial or profession use I suspect that within 4 years you’d be looking to upgrade in any case. Then there’s the comparison between getting it now if you subscribe compared to getting it much later in the future if you save up and purchase - objectively, how much value could you get out of it in that time? Then there’s the fact that once you pay for a full purchase the money is all gone immediately, whereas a subscription means you pay over time - on average 50% of the money is in your bank account rather than theirs over the course of the subscription, giving you the benefits rather than them.
Objectively speaking there are cases where it’s better to purchase than to lease, for sure. But the “I want to own it because ownership is better in principle” argument is flawed. Do the numbers - there are use cases where both are optimal. You want to continue to use the stuff on occasion after you’ve retired? Pick up a month of the thing you need when you want to use it.
As for it not making sense that you can’t keep it after subbing for a certain amount of time, you’re not looking at it from their point of view. It’s a no brainer from a user’s point of view because getting more for less is always a no brainer. But what value does that give to the developer? They’re doing this so they can get income guaranteed over time. What you’re suggesting would do the exact opposite.
Having said all of that, I do think it’s stupid that Adobe no longer even offers an outright purchase option.
