I have no idea how well it works in reality, but I can imagine the Lifetime Pass being a good business model for them: only the most enthusiastic user will pay for 3 years up front (lifetime currently costs 3x the yearly). So when they get a Lifetime pass they’re getting 3 years paid up front and an evangelist who will probably tell their friends about Plex. If that Lifetime subscriber gets even one person to sign up for a yearly sub who otherwise wouldn’t have, then Plex came out ahead.

Sure, I’m not saying Plex has to do a single-payment model. Just that it’s a think that’s been done successfully (and for longer than Plex has existed). Everyone’s pushing subscription models so hard that it’s easy to think “this is the only possible way that anything can work”.

I like my Shield TV: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/shield/shield-tv/

I did need to install a custom launcher on it when the standard AndroidTV launcher added ads.

Lots of businesses have and do exist without a subscription model. I’m fond of the Paprika Recipe Manager, for example, which asks a one-time payment for each major version. All commercial software worked this way in the 80s.

Changing jobs carries a lot of risks:

• Many Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck and cannot afford to quit their bad job before looking for another
• American healthcare system means that if you are between jobs and anyone in your family gets seriously sick/injured then you will be in medical debt for the rest of your life
• For many people, there are few jobs available. Maybe the other jobs pay too poorly for them to live on
• As discussed, employees aren’t given slack-time, so they can’t search for a new job while at work
• Because they’re exhausted, they can’t search for a new job while not at work
• Amazon isn’t the worst place to work. Your next job might be worse! (Small businesses in the USA are exempt from many rules and effectively-exempt from many more.)