> there's no additional cost to Opal (no servers to maintain etc) to necessitate a subscription This is where you might be wrong. I know nothing about the Opal

> there's no additional cost to Opal (no servers to maintain etc) to necessitate a subscription This is where you might be wrong. I know nothing about the Opal company, but it seems increasingly true that you cannot get VC for a startup without a business model that shows a continuing revenue stream. Business models where the consumer only pays for the product once are dead in the water. So you may be right that there's no additional cost to Opal, but a subscription might be required by their funders for them to be in business in the first place. It's still ridiculous and I refuse to buy such products.