My perspective was that I purchased unraid because it satisfied my requirements at that point in time. I don’t really expect _any_ major feature additions. The fact that it’s getting better is amazing IMO.
I think a lot of peoples perceptions are skewed from SaaS models maybe?
That's on them and their business model, not on the customers.
In software a business needs a source of income, otherwise you have what unraid has currently: a burst of income at the beginning, and less and less resources to handle the support calls that come in later.
Edited to add: It's also why Plex sucks lately. Lifetime members paid up front for maybe $100. When Plex burnt through that money and wasn't getting a return with new subscriptions, they started looking for ways to make Plex more profitable rather than making better software for their users.