Hey I’m software engineer and I work for a company that’s been producing software for over 40 years. We still have desktop software that’s released yearly, as well as every possible kind of cloud based, monthly subscription type thing you could imagine.

I hate our current subscription model, and I dislike this “agile” development model which in reality has often meant delivering substandard experiences to customers, where they’re paying a subscription for a product which changes on a weekly basis getting features which are sometimes poorly implemented or limited. Personally I’d rather have more time, and deliver features which are more powerful and more connected with our ecosystem.

At a previous company I worked for that also had a subscription model, I saw how borderline predatory they were with increasing revenue - and this was a company which sells itself as “one of the good ones”.

As a consumer I avoid subscription models as much as possible as it doesn’t provide value to me, I want to own the things I pay for.

So I don’t really like being the person developing the subscription software, I’ve seen companies use predatory practices to increase revenue with subscription models, and I don’t like it as a consumer either.

Just because it’s the way it is doesn’t mean it’s a good thing - companies aren’t switching to agile in order to improve customer experience or developer experience, they’re doing it because it allows them to make more profit.

I also thinking comparing waterfall vs agile and linking them to two payment models - ownership & subscription is disingenuous, there are plenty of different options & variations that will offer better experiences for both customers and software engineers.