I’ve also heard from a developer using Setapp that it hasn’t been very profitable for him, which is why we haven’t explored Setapp ourselves, so I very much doubt that is the reason behind Ulysses’ switch. 
As a user of multiple power-user software suites, the only one I don’t mind subscription to is Office 365, simply because of its access to 1 TB of cloud storage. What with Microsoft updating every few years and formerly charging an arm and a leg for a standalone that would be replaced in two or three years, I’ve never seen reason not to subscribe. Adobe, on the other hand … they’re the poster boy for bad power user software. “Customer service? What customer service? Documentation? We don’t need no stinkin’ documentation!”
Seriously, LL and Scrivener are on my wall of fame as far as excellent power user software goes. I work for a company that makes a (I kid you not) $2000 product that’s totally worth it, but upgrades on a two year cycle where it makes sense to go subscription. Adobe, on the other hand, charges more than they used to these days, and gives you less in terms of actual feature upgrades or even bug fixes.
Is it true that all of us would prefer to own the things that we use; Car, house, computer, software? Is it just a simple human desire? I think so and, I think that’s why we all instinctively rail against any form of rental or subscription model unless it makes absurd sense, i.e, buy outright for $1,000 or rent for $10/year - and even then we do’d it begrudgingly.
Regardless of the model, $50 for Scrivener with an upgrade every few years or $30/year rental of Ulysses, I think the whole thing is not down to the raw financials but to the comfort of knowing that, what ever happens tomorrow in my life, I have my tool bought and paid for, done and taken care of and no one can take it away from me.
Am I alone in that simple feeling?
MPT
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One of the big issues with subscriptions is the anxiety associated with being tethered to a product where I’ve invested a lot of my own time creating projects. What if the company goes out of business overnight? What if they raise the price? Etc etc.
There’s a cozy feeling knowing that I have a standalone copy of Scrivener that will work for the foreseeable future* on a computer that doesn’t require internet access to authenticate*.
I also feel that a developer might be encouraged to do big version releases versus incremental if they know a user is going to have to throw down full (or upgrade) pricing every so often. Conversely there might be added expectation if I’m spending subscription fees each month and I only see the boilerplate release notes over and over again: “Bug fixes.”
And finally, whenever I see apps using subscriptions that don’t go toward some kind of backend infrastructure then it feels like a money grab. Netflix and cloud storage providers have ongoing costs even if they stop developing their product. There are servers churning 24/7. Whereas Ulysses and Bear seem to apply the subscription model like an arcade machine requiring tokens to stay running. (My understanding is that Bear requires subscription to use iCloud --which is odd because Apple is doing the heavy lifting there, no?)
*Of course who knows how much Apple/MacOS updates will affect things, but those will always be outside of the developer control.
I should say first I have some awareness of software licensing and trends. Old licenses were perpetual, with not much in the way of updates. More recently, licenses have been perpetual with annual maintenance giving access to updates…go out of maintenance then you have to re-buy your license. Subscriptions convert the perpetual to a lease.
If you’re selling software for $30, and release a new version every three years for $30 more, then your annual subscription should be $10/yr, plus a bit of an increase to manage the risk of lack of renewals (say +20% making it $12/year). People tend to charge closer to the full license rate as a subscription under the assumption that the renewal won’t happen. It’s less than a cup of coffee a month.
Alternatively, you could estimate your company’s annual budget plus reasonable profit and growth, divide by the percentage of likely long-term users and charge that.
I’m not a fan of subscriptions, but it is the industry trend. I would say explore how to do it, then shelf it for later.
BTW, thanks for exploring Android…Scriv3 is bringing me back.