Could you name and shame some of the apps your are talking about? I pay for 1Password and JetBrains and similarly am happy with them but I also pay for a number of other subscriptions and I haven't felt the same "resting on their laurels" that you are describing.
Out of top of my mind - Evernote, Lightroom on Desktop. A PDF reader on my Android phone (still doesn't support dark mode, years after introduction). Boostnote, another note-taking app.
LastPass also doesn't really justify their costs considering their poor engineering.
I haven’t been a user for years; I’m just a perplexed bystander.
Lightroom has some updates but I’ll agree the pace is slower. They are a market leader for certain kinds of commercial photographers that will happily pay a couple hundred a year for a critical business expense. I wish they’d see more competition.
Evernote is one of the few that might at least have a legitimate case for having a recurring monthly fee since ostensibly you're paying for cloud storage and synchronization across all of your devices.
