P: Photoshop pricing structure is too high

TAX

I agree and I think Adobe are creeping up the price off the Photographers Cloud and I have noticed that people are starting to look for cheaper alternatives which will eventually lose Adobe its crown. I am the Vice-President of my local camera club which consists of mainly retired people and these people rely on Adobe to edit their images. They cannot afford to pay the money now asked for the Photographers package and many are looking at Stand Alone LightRoom which negates the use of layers and then they lose out again. I'm sure Adobe's intention was to make it affordable for the masses but we find that again, Adobe products are too expensive for the average home user.

Adobe, if you read this then it is time that you had a discount pricing for members of not for profit clubs such as mine, perhaps at the student rates. The clubs could provide conformation that the person is a paid up member via a copy of the membership receipt and you could licence accordingly. I would be happy to arrange for my club to be involved in a beta program to try this out.

Too high?  Not for professional use.

Consider standalone AutoCAD license costs $4,195.00. If you do not get the $1,250/year maintenance subscription, you will receive no major updates and no tech support from AutoCAD.

A monthly subscription of AutoCAD costs $210/month.

Well, I would understand that if this had been their strategy from scratch. And if I started photography today, I'd certainly go for alternatives.
But Adobe has for many years addressed advanced amateurs with a fairly priced purchase version. It has even reduced the price significantly - my first lightroom version (2) had cost me 300 €, later versions were only in the ballpark of 130 €. And even with LR6 Adobe promised(!) that there would always be purchasing versions.

So for ten years they have drawn amateurs to build up their entire collections, workflows, tools etc. around Lightroom and made them virtually dependent on it, and as soon as they have build up a huge user base, then out of the sudden they start charging pro prices. Like a drug dealer giving the first three shots for free.

This is what really upsets me!

I feel your pain; I have the same problem with Illustrator which I use just now and again. However there are plenty of alternatives to both Illutrator and LR/PS for casual hobbyists. If - as is your right - you choose to use pro tools for a casual hobby, you can’t expect the vendor to subsidise this. Nor can you expect other users to; as a pro, I find it interesting that a casual hobbyist (whilst whining about the cost of a pro tool) suggests that Adobe could actually charge pros more, whilst charging casual hobbyists less. For the same tools. Hmmm

Renting for a month does not really help. I use Lightroom (still version 6) maybe 20 times per year, mainly after vacations or weekend trips, parties or certain other events. This happens across the year. 

If Adobe wants the money of casual users, they'd either need to return to the purchase model or they woul have to offer tariffs that go per session / hour or the likes. E.g. a tariff of 5 € per months for up to 10 hours of usage, then increasing prices for other packages with more usage time.

Currently there's just one price for anyone, whether he is a pro spending all day on it or just a hobbyist who wants to organize and edit their family photos here and then.

For pros it's rather cheap, I belive Adobe could even charge much more. For casual hobbyists it's too expensive.

These product are not catered to casual users. There is a reason that Adobe products such as Premiere Pro and After Effects are used on major motion pictures. It's because Adobe products are made for professionals or at least people who are aspiring to be professionals. By no means am I saying that casual users shouldn't use these products, but let's be realistic here.

Wow, what a novel.

You need to invest in yourself and your business if you want to make money.