It was working and now it isn't, and the outcome is that some of their customers are unhappy and might move on.
API access is not the same product offering as the subscription, so that's probably a practical option but not a comparable one.
if you want to use (most likely heavily) subsidized subscription plans, use their ecosystem.
it's that simple.
I am surprised that anyone would think the "product" is the web interface and cli tool though, the product is very clearly the model. The difference in all options is merely how you access it.
It wasn't a feature. It was a loophole. They closed it.
There are multiple products. Besides models, there's a desktop app, there's claude code. They have subscriptions.