Devil's advocate: this is market segmentation, similar to Tesla limiting range using a software toggle[1].
Having a a capability engineered into a product but making it unavailable to a subset of consumers in the lower price bucket has a long history.
I do not endorse the practice, but there's a tendency to sell things at prices the market will bear, with little basis on unit production cost. I must say, the HN crowd is typically more sanguine about SaaS and the virtues of recurring revenue when the subject is a software company. I'm more of a boxed-software/buy-it-once guy, but that ship seems to have sailed.
1. I became aware of this when Tesla temporarily unlocked additional range for Florida residents so they could flee a hurricane
Having a a capability engineered into a product but making it unavailable to a subset of consumers in the lower price bucket has a long history.
I do not endorse the practice, but there's a tendency to sell things at prices the market will bear, with little basis on unit production cost. I must say, the HN crowd is typically more sanguine about SaaS and the virtues of recurring revenue when the subject is a software company. I'm more of a boxed-software/buy-it-once guy, but that ship seems to have sailed.
1. I became aware of this when Tesla temporarily unlocked additional range for Florida residents so they could flee a hurricane