I picked Plex mainly because the lifetime sub wasn't bad, and the features and polished interface were worth it. If Plex adds too many garbage/bloat features or removes useful features then I'll jump ship to jellyfin immediately. Same boat for paying for bitwarden vs self hosting vaultwarden
As a former director of a tech startup it all goes downhill when you bring investors on board to raise capital. I had to do many things I disagreed with because once you bring investors in you generally end up facing life ruining financial penalties if you don't deliver what they want.