I'm grandfathered in at $200/year from the Safari days. The main advantage of the subscription to me is being able to evaluate several books on a topic to pick the one that is the best fit for what I need.

If I knew which books were best in category, it would be cheaper for me to just buy those specific books (or video courses, for things like Blender).

But if I had to pay the current $500 price, I wouldn't be a subscriber.

Agreed, I'm also on a $200/year plan and for me too the fact that I can skim multiple books on a single topic before settling on one is well worth the money.