I see HTC as a service provider in a market place and I dont know how unique or not their product is. Without HTC there would be less competition and you have to appreciate and value that. You can only judge whether they offer good value for money against what else is available in the market.
Their product is the best massively multiplayer WW2 air combat game. New updates or features will only maintain that title, most people acknowledge this and get on with playing the game.
The subscription cost is your right to play online at Htc's servers on a month by month basis and to interact with everyone else. If you never had a sub and just played offline missions and kept up to date with the latest version. You will essentially have a totally FREE WW2 game how cool is that for value for money.