It's just that having a recurring revenue allows you to offer features that you wouldn't be able to otherwise, and people WANT those features. For example, as

It's just that having a recurring revenue allows you to offer features that you wouldn't be able to otherwise, and people WANT those features. For example, as a B2b software company, there is no way I'm offering customers any complex cloud functionality, especially involving data storage, if I can't guarantee that I will be able to cover the costs in the future. Thus recurring revenue is a must. On the other hand, if you just need an offline app that can work fine without being updated frequently, probably a single upfront payment is better suited. This is nothing new by the way, multiplayer games have worked this way for a long time. In general a multiplayer game that asks you a subscription fee has a much higher chance of being kept online for longer. See WoW. Without subscription fees they would have probably shut down a long time ago.