First, I want to be very clear that Roon can certainly choose to do whatever they desire. It’s their company. And I have no behind the scenes knowledge whatsoever.
My primary reason for not liking the ongoing lifetime membership is the frequent hand-wringing of folks on “do I get it, or not, or whatever” combined with the “I may get it later on if I decide it’s worth it”. The former gets old and the latter seems to me to be fraught with potential major customer disappointment (i.e., Oh no! They ended the lifetime just as I was ready to buy it…how dare they).
From a business perspective I think about these issues: A subscription service like Roon needs ongoing revenue to both be profitable and to improve. At the extreme, if every user became a lifetime member, then in a few years there would be few funds available for further improvement (or even maintenance). I think there is a fairly small customer base for something like Roon, so without that small base providing ongoing revenue, I’m a bit nervous. And even as a target for acquisition (to ensure a long life perhaps) the “customer lifetime value” is a key metric and it depends on future subscription revenue.
This said, I bought a lifetime membership. But I viewed it like a “kickstarter” contribution to help get an enterprise off the ground. It was a good way to start to build a customer base for a new company. But as noted earlier, if everyone was a lifer, then in a few years the company will be dead.