come on, that's just crazy, Aviary is no competition for Adobe. There are a million photo editing apps, and Aviary is one of them, but Adobe is the giant gorilla in the game, the go-to software for designers and photographers.
As a longtime Lightroom user, I am happy that the most recent version can still be purchased as a standalone license. But they certainly seem to be steering people to the subscription model there as well.
Aviary needs to compete not on features so much as audience. If Aviary can do 80% of what Adobe does for some % of users and it convinces those users to eschew their CC subscription, they are a competitor.
In other words, it's less the product and more the people.