In reply to Mark.

I don’t think it was a bad business decision at all. They must have known exactly what they where setting them up for; a group of users that will receive free upgrades for the lifetime of the product. They traded that for upfront cash. If that is a good or bad deal depends on perspective.

Yes, some of these customers would otherwise be paying a subscription now. But others would not. I clearly would not install ACF Pro on every site I build if it would come with a (recurring) cost, it would be decided carefully from case to case. So these lifetime license holder are probably good marketing, spreading the use of ACF Pro and keeping the plugin relevant (extra important with the transition to the block editor).

And there are probably lifetime license holders out there who long ago moved on to other things but bought the license just in case, thus generating good cash back then.

Continuing to give ut these updates does actually cost them anything, it’s just some hypothetical money on the table. And if support for these users is a burden (I have no idea if it is) then charge for it. It’s a lifetime license, not a lifetime support deal.