How is an electron app that just adds another step solving the problem? They should have just secured their api properly instead of using security as an excuse to cut out third party software that will get around an inevitable subscription.
This is basically the equivalent to having passwords on a MySQL database or redis server.
Why on earth would they add a subscription? That makes absolutely no sense business wise. No one would buy their printers, and they don't have a captured market to strong arm anyone.