> Would you pay a subscription for Flappy Bird?

I don't do that on the app store either.

And software was sold way before app stores existed, so what's your point?

I happily pay for games and apps, including upgrades if they are valuable to me.

I refuse to pay monthly for stuff that shouldn't need backend services.

Flappy Bird didn’t make money from selling the app though. The example actually hurts your argument. Flappy Bird and many sites make money the same way - ads.