You don't have to use their premium database components. Just use something else as client-library. I'm also not a fan of yearly payments. But with a $1200 lic

You don't have to use their premium database components. Just use something else as client-library. I'm also not a fan of yearly payments. But with a $1200 license you usually get access to all old versions - including Delphi 7. After Delphi 6/7 at least Version 11/12 were usable for 64-bit. So I think at least once every other decade it is ok to get a usable 64-bit version of Delphi.