Photoshop already is a rather expensive subscription so whoever doesn't mind paying Adobe obviously uses it for making good money on regular basis and shouldn't have a problem paying Pantone as well.
"Has no choice but to pay for it" != "doesn't mind paying for it."
Lots of graphic designers, "employed" as contractors, have to pay for photoshop.
One of the reasons Adobe moved to this "cloud" shit is because lot of large companies tended to delay upgrading for quite some time...not because they couldn't afford it, but because most of their bargain-basement labor force couldn't.
They should just introduce a more reasonable pricing policy offering personal licenses notably cheaper than corporate licenses, non-commercial and educational licenses even cheaper, major version upgrades at a fraction of a new purchase price. This would be a reasonable, practical, humane model, wouldn't it?
