"apps these days" aren't like older software, where basically all the code and functionality was written and baked into each new release by the author/team releasing it

almost every piece of new software you use (certainly everything with a subscription) is actually calling another third-party paid API (sometimes multitudes) and using your subscription money to pay for the cost of the app leveraging that API

this approach made it much easier to release a product, but now the product depends on a third-party being paid for every request