I completely agree with the "freehold" principle, and it's how I exclusively release any of my work however how we get back there for the majority I just don't know. The only apps I know that are a success in the modern day that are using that model is Goodnotes that saves repurchase for significant updates which I think is acceptable, and Affinity design apps. I sense many feel their business model is better suited to subscriptions and the lapsed subscription fee is also valuable. It's likely a societal change whereby many are not happy to spend significant upfront costs on software now. Even a small amount on an app can be thought of as too much.