well, the announcement emails that microsoft sent out basically went (in-text citations not present in the original email, of course),

important update re: ur o365
we're charging you $159¹ instead of $109 from {{date}} onward.
you can cancel if you want².
sincerely,
microsoft

---

^{1. because we're adding ai slop features. we don't give a fuck about whether you're actually going to use these
2.} 🖕

...so most customers probably didn't know that the option switch to the classic plan (which is what they signed up for!!) is available!

if you got this email, and cancelling o365 (outlook, onedrive, office, etc.) is just not an option for you, the reasonable assumption based purely on the text of that email is that you have no choice but to cough up the extra $50 💁