Re: Adobe refuses to sell their products!!! We have to just RENT them now???

The beauty of the subscription model is that there are frequent updates to the software; you're not stuck in 2023 with a 2015 vintage product (or older). I'm convinced that the subscription model is more economical in the long run because you don't pay for costly upgrades. If you don't want the updates and aren't interested in new features, by all means, stick to the vintage model that you're accustomed to.

Question to my inner me: should I answer?

My inner me: may be not!

My outer me: but I want to answer!

My inner me: sigh!

Answer:

Whatever you do, you do not need to use the state-of-the-art Adobe products. But if you would like to use them, you will need to use them according to the conditions offered. If you wish to avoid doing that, be a Musk: Buy Adobe.

Serious answer: The Adobe subscription model is highly successful. And at the end of the day, for people using Adobe products as a tool to make a living, the subscription model is much cheaper than buying.

NO SUBSCRIPTION REQUIRED

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Photoshop Elements or Premiere Elements
https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-elements.html

Adobe Express FREE or $10/month

https://helpx.adobe.com/express/using/express-overview.html

This argument is older than dirt.  The subscription model is wildly popular with 22 million subscribers. As long as it works, Adobe isn't going to change their business model.  Sorry.

Feel free to buy standalone software  -- if you can still find one that doesn't require subscriptions.  Or don't buy at all.  Use free online services.

That said, how do you pay for TV /streaming & Internet services, phone, utilities, rent..?  Don't you pay monthly to keep your lights on?  How is that different than monthly service for tools of your trade?  Unless you live in a cave, completely severed from society & the grid, it's likely that  you pay monthly for everything you consume. That's life on planet Earth.

Adobe isn't the only company that does this. Many others are doing the same. The cost of PS is relatively cheap (depending on where you live). It's cheaper than buying a hamburger, where I live. So you have to decide if you use the software enough to justify the cost. For many other software applications that I used to use, it wasn't, but PS is different for me.

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