This is the major problem. I do know indies who have used workarounds just so they aren't held hostage. I wouldn't use subscriptions for my own personal creative work. So, yes, the customer base is indeed changing- to those who mainly work for others.
And yet they have ported them not only to iOS but also to M1.
Just because you don't see changes in the UI doesn't mean there hasn't been significant engineering effort spent.
It's hard to define cause and effect, but Adobe's R&D spend is definitely increasing:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/794840/research-developm...
Figma is crushing Adobe. Alternatives like Affinity are eating much of the casual user base.
Again it's impossible to define cause and effect, but OP's claim that they are investing less in product after introducing subscriptions is spurious - R&D has dramatically increased almost exactly in line with revenue.
Subscriptions raised that to $240 a year, a 480% increase. Further, since subscriptions were added no features I want have been added. But, I can't just stop and use some version, stop paying and the software stops working.
I see no evidence that Adobe's subscription model has let them invest more effort in making the product great. In fact it's the exact opposite. Before they had to add some features to entice you to pay for the upgrade. now they can just do nothing because you're "renting" the software.