Iris 2 is so frustrating

[Sampleconstruct]

The Izotope product manager told me it's because there wasn't interest by enough musicians to cover iZotope's very high development costs. Iris 1 appealed only to the handful of sound designers...

Naaa, the records of my Iris subscription tell me otherwise, hundreds of users have been using Iris 1/2 and they definitely weren't all sound designers.

Maybe everyone needs your Subscription to make the most of Iris??? (speaking as someone who bought the whole enchilada...)

Well, I suspended the subscription last year, when iZotope decided to give away Iris for free, that was no viable business model anymore.

[commerce]

Will thousands of musicians who buy a $12 Iris then pay $100 for any kind of update?

You are not supposed to pay for just "any kind of update".
And not everybody needs every single upgrade. Sometimes I skip one version or two.

Some paid more than $12.

But you are right, the upgrade from Iris 1 to Iris 2 is about $100 (PB today). What makes no sense, when the full version is only $12.

BreakTweaker ("future beat machine") is a similar case...