I'm a little mystified that with this new model suddenly people are saying "but how do I know what the price will be 2 or 3 years from now?". Indeed, how do we know? Wait a minute, how do we know that the next upgrade of Cubase, or Windows, or anything, isn't going to suddenly cost 10 times more? We don't. It seems unlikely, since nobody would buy it if it did, but still, it's true, we don't know. How do we know that next year's iphone, or Audi, or anything, won't suddenly cost 10 times more? Why, for a wonder, again, we don't! We don't know how much any company is going to decide to charge for their product or service in the future, because
we can't tell the future! We don't have a crystal ball! (at least I don't).
News flash:
nothing has changed! What we have is what we have always had, which is a great company that makes a great DAW for a pretty great price, and seems intent on continuing to do so for the foreseeable future. Personally I will continue to support them and pay for upgrades or membership or whatever you want to call it, as long as it continues to seem like a good deal to me. When they start charging what seems like an unreasonable amount, I will look elsewhere. Changing horses midstream because the one you're on
might start looking like a loser at some point in the future, seems kind of crazy.