Subscription models only make sense for an app/service that have recurring costs. In the case of Lemmy apps, the instances are the ones with recurring hosting costs, not the apps.
If an app doesn’t have recurring hosting costs, it only makes sense to have one up front payment and then maybe in app purchases to pay for new features going forward
That’s one possible future. Or you could go out of your way to not get subscriptions.
I have two digital subscriptions, Netflix and Disney+, and I’m considering cancelling them.
For music, I just buy what I want to listen to. I watch far less TV shows now because I find them very repetitive and low quality. I don’t watch many TV shows because I find video games and books more satisfying. And so on.
If a car requires a subscription, I’m not going to buy that car. If a TV comes with ads or a subscription, I’m not buying that TV. And so on. Unfortunately, the subscription model is very popular, but if enough people push back, alternatives will continue to exist.
I’m trying, but I see this going the same way as MTX in video games.
Yet there are still a ton of games without MTX.
I can count on one hand the number of games I’ve played with MTX in the past year, and I’ve played dozens of games in that time. MTX is mostly in big AAA MP games, so I just don’t play big AAA MP games.
In the last year, I’ve gotten a lot more into indie and AA gaming, but I still occasionally play AAA games. If a game obviously has MTX, I don’t play that game. There’s plenty more to choose from.
Vote with your eyeballs and your wallet and support companies that don’t do that nonsense.