Broadly, recurring models are profitable right now once you get that agreement set. People don't reason about $100/mo the same that they reason about $1000 upfront, nor do they generally consider total cost of ownership. They're bad at managing a flood of little spends in aggregate which is to the advantage of subscription models.

Surely the invisible hand will provide for us

It’s a mistake to call these capitalist things. When the government subsidizes you and bails you out with money printing fraud and government spending and no one is ever held accountable, let alone suffer any real consequences; you don’t have capitalism at all, any more than “communism” was ever actually communism.

Frankly, if you look at “capitalism” it oddly looks far more like the underlying con system of control core to “communism” than not, even if it has been far more sustainable and enduring because it is based on ideological control, not physical control.