He said added value over time in exchange for a subscription. Photoshop has value, that's why it's being purchased; GP is saying that the subscription doesn't add anything additional, which I kind of agree with for a program as mature as PS.

It's a lease vs. buy calculation -- one site who did the math says:

> However, once you get past the two year mark, all bets are off—the subscription is more expensive than buying, even if you plan on upgrading every two years.

https://lifehacker.com/5904416/rent-vs-buy-is-adobes-creativ...

If you just wanted Photoshop and not the cloud storage, your best bet would be the Photography plan, which is $10 a month and includes Photoshop and Lightroom. Placing the data in Excel, and assuming someone were to take the $585 Amazon price for Photoshop and upgrade every 2 years, it would take 14 years before that was a better deal than using the subscription plan. If you assume the $700 price tag, it takes 25 years. However, it only takes 3 years if you use the student plan numbers (though as a side note, it looks like the subscription plan is the only way to get Photoshop now).

The math is different today because there's a $10 photography plan that didn't exist when CC launched, and as you point out you can't buy PS outright anymore.