The example you give is a smart one that we did explore! Effectively, relationship is no longer user -> stripe customer, but user -> shipping_address -> stripe

The example you give is a smart one that we did explore! Effectively, relationship is no longer user -> stripe customer, but user -> shipping_address -> stripe customer. We decided the cost of implementing and maintaining this solution wasn't worth the benefit to the business. A credit to your later points. We came up with a solution that allows us to ship one-off things to arbitrary addresses with correct tax calculation, and if a customer really wanted to setup a subscription to a distinct address, we could implement it in the future, hackily, with this primitive.