T.S. You bring excellent points about the whole internet bullshit and the substandard schlubscription model.
Even the stuff that is 'free' now, in 3 years, they are going tits up so, hey lets charge 5 dollars a month for what we used to give them for free, see if that helps our bottom line. or... we have a new version, if they want support they can but the NEW one, ...stop giving them support for the old one..... it always ends that way. just ask Apple.
Oh hey this device shows you EVERYTHING you ever could want to SEE !!!! You just have to goto our server to retrieve the info... until the server is not there anymore.
Given more and more people live a throw away society, more and more you are going to see models goto this. it actually makes manufacturing easier, instead of having to do 50 runs of something in different variations, you do one run, fully loaded and just turn stuff on and off at will. They want it, they can rent it. From a retailers pov this is a win win because even if you opted to not get something, it's still there, and they can nag you until you decide to give it a try then buy it, whereas if your vehicle was made without it, it's NOT there to use as a nag tool to try to constantly upsale you.
Devices are not made to OWN anymore, things are rented for a few years.. then you 'trade in' for the newer model etc etc.
Long gone are the washing machines that will last 30 years, you may have to replace a belt or an idler pulley every decade or so,now it's a control board that goes out in 4 years and it's 700 dollars for a new one... or 829 for a whole new washer...
Aaron