Why can't we just accept that different people have differing needs, wants and abilities.
As I noted in my recent essay
Won Over the The Cloudy Side, I bought the $29.95 bundle because I decided to switch from Final Cut X to Premiere Pro 6 for my video editing. This means I got Premiere for just $20 more than the "photographers" bundle, which gave me Photoshop and Lightroom.
But now a week has gone by and my dock also has Prelude, Supergrade, and Audition, three powerful and useful programs that I can use, and which I know I would have been reluctant to buy. And for when there's the time and the need, there'll be Illustrator and InDesign (which I haven't upgraded in years, and now I get the latest "free").
By coincidence, as I was writing this I got an email asking for an important legal document to be sent as a signed PDF. So I simply downloaded Acrobat Xi Pro – a few hundred dollars saved, that I would otherwise have to have spent this morning.
So for me, having access to all of Adobe's 25 or more professional imaging apps looks like a total no-brainer. No regrets whatsoever.
The whole issue of "
I'll lose access to my files" is a red herring of the first magnitude. No one is going to come and pull the plug overnight. There's time to plan, if one finds oneself in the position that $30 is beyond one's means it likely isn't going to happen overnight.
My stills images, when I'm done working on them, are backed up regularly to DNG, and also to TIFFs. My video projects are saved as full resolution .MOV files. I really don't go back often and change things months or years later, but when I do there are countless ways to do so with other software products.
I have many subscriptions that cost far more than Adobe CC. My cell phone bill, regularly in the hundreds. My cable bill, regularly in the hundreds, my car insurance...don't ask. My home insurance, XM Satellite in the car, and so on and so on. (The only bargain subscription in my life at the moment seems to be Netflix. The deal of the century.)
$30 or even $50 per month is a minor cost of doing business for anyone in image processing professionally, and, I would argue, a relative bargain given that there are some of the best and most expensive production tools available in the CC offering if and when one needs them.
For the amateur on a budget and with limited needs, it's likely not a good idea. So don't do it!!! Find inexpensive software tools that you like and can use.
End of story, at least to my limited imagination. The arguments are really tedious and likely unnecessary. Just get on with your lives.
Michael