"taxation" is being a bit melodramatic. These services require an ongoing cost on the part of the service provider to keep a backend running in order to be usef

"taxation" is being a bit melodramatic. These services require an ongoing cost on the part of the service provider to keep a backend running in order to be useful. It's not really economically feasible to have a one-time payment and provide infinite ongoing support for it. Take 1Password for example. If you paid one time you could have a local app that exists on your computer. Want to access your passwords on your phone? Well, too bad, you can't. If you want to do that, there needs to be a server which means 1Password needs to keep paying to keep a server running, hence you have an ongoing subscription cost. You could host the server yourself if you're technically capable and so inclined, but lots of people aren't so they pay someone else to do it.