FWIW, having been brought up on PLC-5, 133x drives, and other A-B control equipment, I have been more likely to be a defender, or at least not a vocal detractor, towards Allen-Bradley/Rockwell Automation (AB/RA). In my experience, the erosion of their hardware quality, and never-really-great software, was somewhat offset by their competitive support options and pricing, at least compared with other companies I have dealt with (e.g., Honeywell).
It appears that someone sees this support strategy as "leaving money on the table" when they can jump on the subscription-fee and pay-per-feature bandwagon.
It almost seems to follow the pattern of the legacy, US-based airlines. Back in the good-old-days the product (air travel) was pretty good, but options were limited and cost was high. Competition drove down prices and quality in response to marketplace pressures. Upstarts with better quality and pricing come along. Some legacy companies adapt better than others. Some go out of business. Same old story.
AB/RA seems now to be playing much like the airlines: Let's offer first class, business class and coach. Charge the business traveler as much as we can get out of them, where the "business traveler" is the long-time AB/RA customer with so much inertia they (management) doesn't want to take the risk of changing to a better, lower cost product. AB/RA creates complicated pricing schemes to extract more money for basically the same, if not inferior, products and services. No one really knows how much anyone else is paying, like two people next to each other in coach class with vastly different ticket prices.
It will be interesting to see if, and for how long, this strategy will work for them, especially now that they are no longer in a position of technical strength with their controls equipment. Being on the verge of the "great resignation," I doubt I will be on the front lines to see what happens.
