To be clear, 1Password has never really been "free." It has always been a paid product. Aside from the mobile apps being made free with limited features, it was previously a paid app, then with the massive push to 1Password's service they made it a lot less free and back to paid again.
If you really want to complain... complain about how they keep pushing for their subscription, making it harder and harder to find a one time purchase.
Or their massive issues with multiple browser extensions that are a complete mess for the average person.
Or how their usability has decreased substantially.
Or how they're less a consumer product and more a business product these days.
As far as I remember, I've paid for several versions and upgrades until they forced their crappy subscription service on us.
Not sure about OP but I can see a clearly dark pattern by hiding the non subscription option to the point where I had to google how to acquire one. At this point I simply gave up and choose other option.
If I have to pay yearly at least bitwarden gives me fair price and comparable service. Maybe 1pass is better than bitwarden but it's certainly not 4x better.
I think I'd better describe it as, "It used to be a one-time charge for a license, but now you need to have a subscription."
You can still get stand-alone licenses, but they do suppress that. Part of that I believe is not running afoul of App Store rules, and also because most people are finding it via the iOS and Mac app stores.
I'm still using standalone licenses quite happily, and have no issue with buying new licenses when major versions get bumped.
