Ask HN: Perpetual license or a recurring fee for self-hosted services?

Take something like Gitlab EE. It's a great product with a lot of value. However, they charge a monthly/yearly fee for you to host their software on your own hardware. That feels a bit uncomfortable, for whatever reason. Wouldn't something like a one-time fee with a perpetual license, entitling you to just the version you buy (updates and support cost a recurring fee, because they are services) be better for the consumer? Someone serious about updates and support would still end up paying a recurring fee, but someone who wants just one version will have the option of permanently owning that version. (Note: I'm just using Gitlab as an example; I do not expect/need/want them to change their pricing strucuture. I'm simply talking about alternate pricing models for self-hosted services.)