mettelus
For me, the crux of this situation has been mentioned briefly, but doesn't often get considered. Most people buy a product for "what it is" at the time of purchase, not for "what it might become." Only service industries can get away with such a strategy, but this would never fly in products - no one will buy a guitar without pickups or a car without tires because they "might come" in the next year. I happen to consider SONAR a product, and since "subscription" gets beaten down readily, others would confirm this.
Basically how I work also, what is there as new when I pay again decides - and started this thread because of it and to see if I was the odd one or if there is good feedback for Cakewalk how to proceed.
I felt I was a bit like Scrooge McDuck - just waiting in the car for the parking meter to expire, since he paid for it.
Looking at upgrade options when patchpoints came, and no alternative since I had four months paid updates still on Artist. So membership kept me from updating to Professional.
So maybe some discount when you do overlapping upgrades or something like that is the psychology of the wallet.
And when time to renew/upgrade - knowing patchpoints are there, the news had cooled off somehow.
And looking for good enough notation all summer and fall, I had gone for another daw already.
mettelus
One thing that occurred to me recently (and what ultimately bothers me) is that SONAR is a host application first and foremost, and as such should be impeccable as a host (i.e., the things no VST can ever do for it). Functionality, usability, exception handling (big one), optimization, et al. should be the #1 priority above all else IMO. Everyone loves a good host.
I would reason that way too, since I already have all plugins I need in the foreseeable future.
The daw is a holder of clips and plugins - and assist in making edits to finalize result and workflow for doing that decides which daw is preferred.
Since plugins are the tools for creating your sound more than anything - the daw can be replaced more easily if plugins are 3rd party and not stock plugins.
So core daw features are important.
But product line is rather sensible still, I find. Really good value entry point with Artist, with Professional all features almost without paying for too many plugins and libraries, and then Platinum for those that like as many plugins and libraries they can get. And to keep flagship Platinum members happy they have to release new plugin stuff all the time - which seems to be much appreciated too.
But since my approach is headroom/freedom and flexibility having plugins 3rd party - I feel some resistance when more plugin stuff is added than core daw features. That said, 2015 was incredible still in daw improvements - mixrecall, upsampling and patchpoints biggies to me. So I keep one eye open to see what arrives in Sonar in future.