unlike a regular monthly subscription, these “annual billed monthly” plans have a significant fee if you cancel early, and the specific fee is not disclosed anywhere on the order screen
Maybe the specific fee isn't disclosed, but looking at the screenshot it's quite clear that the monthly option says "cancel anytime" and the annual-billed-monthy option is a year commitment and "fee applies if you cancel after 14 days."
Anyone who was later surprised didn't read what they were buying. This didn't look confusing or deceptive to me at all.