(obdisclaimer: I worked for Adobe several years ago, but have no current stake other than being on the CC photography plan)
I used to buy it every couple of versions or when it went on sale, and that was good enough for my needs. No such luck anymore.
Did a stint on Sketch as well. It’s now gone subscription, but it think it’s the more acceptable “still works but you stops getting updates” type subscription like jetbrains.
What I really want is an Affinity photo library manager like Lightroom. I’ve looked at some currently available options and not been impressed, but there were tweets to the effect that Affinity was thinking about it.
I fought the subscription plan for LR, but realized I usually updated yearly and had this complicated file management system for my photos. For $120/year I have the latest LR versions on all my devices and only have to worry about true backup.
I do keep an eye out for a LR replacement, but I haven't found anything that comes close to LRs file management.
Have you tried Xero? I haven’t, but if you have, I’d be curious to hear your take on it.