You are obviously not a software developer. Software may not “wear out” in the sense that the bits disappear with use but software’s ability to run properly erodes over time as it placed on hardware and operating systems it was never designed for.
To use your own analogy, a lot of what makes minerals valuable is the scarcity and the amount of work to get it out of the ground. Software requires skilled programmers (scarcity) and the and lots of intricate of programming and testing (work) to develop and maintain it.
What’s more is the developers are expected to continue fix defects long after you purchase the product which in itself is a cost.
I look at the $50 a month as less than an hour of my billable time and well worth the investment much better than dropping a grand all at once on the old Creative Suite.
I personally think automated computer executed trading should be banned altogether. In the end all it does is take advantage of essentially rounding errors on a huge scale to make money. It’s like Superman 3 for the stock market. It adds no real “value” and greatly increases volatility.
