Subscription models only make sense for an app/service that have recurring costs. In the case of Lemmy apps, the instances are the ones with recurring hosting costs, not the apps.
If an app doesn’t have recurring hosting costs, it only makes sense to have one up front payment and then maybe in app purchases to pay for new features going forward
Apple and Google app stores had done devs dirty by popularizing the dollar-an-app model. Completely set the wrong expectations about the value of software for users, especially younger ones who grew up with this bs.