I'm a subscriber to the Adobe Creative Cloud tools. I like the subscription model.
As new features and fixes get pushed to production, I get them instead of waiting for some future major or minor update. It takes a lot to make software. Digital photography is all about math and smart people need to get paid. I feel that if I want to use the best tools, then I need to pay for them.
For example: if you are using opensource or free tools, that means the=at you get exactly what you paid for. Not that the free or opensource tools are bad, just DO NOT expect latest tools and features, support or even sympathy when it doesn't work as YOU expected. A person that spent their time, energy and effort to write, compile and post the software. They made that decision to do so and complaining about their work that you are using for free is ridiculous. There are some truly gifted artists and digital creators doing wonderful things with free tools and there are others that love to complain about them.
Here are some articles I've written about the Digital tools that I use. I have no desire to analyze the software or tear into the software code that I license but I will write about my observations and based on my technical experience make conclusions about how the software operates and offer some insights on how I try to take advantage of it.