Is this whole buisness model not crisis resistant? Are there companies out there, giving up on subscription as a buisness model, pivoting back to selling "packaged" software versions?
It may look like $10/m is 60% annual interest rate vs. $200 lifetime, but take into account the risk of not needing $thing and the risk of dealing with a company that offers lifetime so can't sustain itself, I would say that the monthly becomes more attractive.
If it is a choice between say $200/m vs. $400 lifetime, then really the $/m is too high or the lifetime offer too low.
On the other hand, in lean times you are going to see people cancel stuff they don't really need. They should be doing that in fat times too, but maybe it is less of a motivation.
Overall, there's always funny business that can go in involving annunity-like products when lots of money is chasing high returns.