Is it really a trick when it says right in the subscription term selection that it's an annual subscription?

I hate Adobe's insane subscription prices and the fact that they don't give any reminders that your subscription is going to renew is evil, but nothing seems wrong about the 1 year subscription.

If anything, it's a courtesy[1] that they're letting you cancel in the middle of the subscription term at all. Imagine if you paid a lump sum for an annual subscription. Do you really expect to get any portion of your money back if you cancel? The annual-paid-monthly option is still an annual term, you just opted to spread the payments out. It's similar to if you bought something from a store using the store credit card to get 0% interest on the purchase for 12 months.

[1] A courtesy while they're fucking you over, but a courtesy nonetheless.