Reason is pushing a subscription model hard.
Online services like Splice are sub based for sounds & samples.
Bitwig is a yearly fee. You don't have to upgrade but you're probably going to have issues with newer OS versions before long if you don't.
Overall I agree it's sill a better space than most for software you actually can own.
That's the exception that proves the rule, and it's not really that popular though. They're pushing it more than there's actual update, and I think it's more for the "wanna try a music app" crowd atm (than the 'DAW using crowd'), mostly due to the limitations of the iPad.
When traveling I've actually sketched out music in iPad GarageBand then brought over to my Mac and opened them directly in Logic X. It works pretty flawlessly.
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/subscription/...