Confused about new licensing model

Hi

Looking for some clarity here on the new licensing model as the information on the website isn't entirely clear to me.  Last year I purchased a Thunderbay 8 and Thunderbay 4.  They came with SoftRAID XT.  For some reason I paid to upgrade this to Pro and I don't exactly recall why.  I *think* it's because I originally purchased 2x Thunderbay 4 and was going to use my old enclosure for something and Pro was needed for that.  After having issues with the drives I bought I ended up swapping one of the units for a Thunderbay 8 and keeping the other to replace my old unit.  So I don't think I ever actually needed Pro but had bought it before the issues came to light.

This was only last Summer.  If I'm reading the information on the site correctly then I now need to pay another hefty upgrade fee to be able to upgrade my Mac mini to Ventura and continue to fully utilise the SoftRAID volume.  I know you've said read/write access is still possible but having a RAID you can't monitor/manage isn't really realistic so whilst *technically* not a forced upgrade in reality it is.  Similarly it's *technically* a perpetual license but the informations suggests you can't install any updates after a year and every new macOS version requires installing an update to SoftRAID to let it run so again it's really going to be a forced $100 to upgrade each year give the macOS release cadence.  At that point it feels like some kind of $30 per year subscription would be infinitely more reasonable than a $100 annual stealth "not technically a subscription" subscription.  The site is keen to point out backend changes but I know during the time I've had my Pro license there have not been the regular updates you'd associate with a $100 per year sub and certainly not new features.  Upcoming RAID 6 support was advertised on your site a couple of years ago and I know in my discussions on here deciding what drives to buy and if SoftRAID was right for me it was suggested RAID 6 wasn't far out but there's been no mention of it since and I've still got a spare 12TB drive in the cupboard and a slot in the Thunderbay waiting to upgrade the RAID 5 to a RAID 6.  $100 per year is a very steep price point.

Please can you confirm whether I've understood the information on the site correctly?  To continue to use fully functioning SoftRAID software on current and future macOS versions will I require a $100 per year subscription?  The site mentions free upgrades for XT licenses that came with OWC devices in warranty.  I don't recall the warranty period off the top of my head but I'm assuming at least a few years.  In that case would I have the option of getting free XT versions instead of using the Pro license I purchased given I'm only using the two Thunderbays with SoftRAID?  Sorry if I've misunderstood the information but I'm seeking clarity as it was quite a shock to see this information on the site when checking to see if it was safe to upgrade to Ventura.

Thanks