App stores cause saasification

Yesterday I was editing a photo on my phone when I got hit with a prompt: $3.99/mo for premium features! It really feels like every software company and their mother wants to move to a subscription model these days. From a business standpoint, I get it: recurring revenue brings warm fuzzy feelings and is easier to sell to financiers. But as a customer it's incredibly annoying when the pricing doesn't match the value.

In this case, my thoughts ran through some usual tracks: Why should I pay a monthly fee for a photo editing app? They don't have any server or maintenance costs. All the work is done on my phone, and the photos live on my storage. And it's not like the software changes that often, only so many things you can do to a photo. But:

it's not like the software changes that often

... Is that actually true? Apple and Google are on a pretty regular (cough gratuitous) release cadence with their phones and corresponding OS SDKs. SDK updates always come with breaking changes, so developers either have to update or leave it broken (through no fault of theirs) and face a horde of angry existing users. Even absent any new features, that naturally causes churn and maintenance costs. Is it enough to justify a monthly fee? I'm honestly not sure.

This set of incentives has a second order effect: software bloat. If a developer needs to update the software and they need to charge users for it, then they might as well make it more palatable by adding new features. Thus even the smallest apps are doomed to bloat and an endless grind if they want to be sustainable to their makers. Conversely, a certain class of apps will never get made – at least, not without the acceptance that their useful life is completely at the big app stores' whims.

It's pretty annoying that this is the state of software and I don't have any suggestions for fixing it. Maybe just: don't hate the player, hate the game?