I haven't read all of the other replies but I have to admit that I also find this entire ordeal really annoying. I payed the equivalent of $90, so I can occasionally play Dominion at my free leisure. Recently I had troubles in my life and didn't really have time for anything and I still don't and now you're telling me that my purchase will basically be just a waste? Making my purchase the equivalent of a service of about $36 is not a good reimbursement, come on. I'd rather prefer MF to still hold the contract at this time even though it is far from perfect and made me use SCSNs mod to make it more bearable.
I'd rather pay a steep price once than pay a little each month and feel like I wasted money if I don't play at least once this month. I am disillusioned at how poor structered the new pay model is and how everyone is so ecstatic about these news.
I think that most people understand that ongoing services have a cost. Some places use donation models to keep things going (BGA, Yucata, Kingdom of Loathing). Some use pay-to-win or pay-for-hats to keep things going (Prismata, Hearthstone, and *shudder* mobile freemium). And others use subscriptions.
Making Fun had an unsustainable business model. They were going to get less and less revenue each month at some point, and server costs were going to eat them.
The thing about subscriptions is, you don't have to pay every month! Shit hit the fan IRL? Cancel for the next few months, bam, done. You could request/suggest that the free year be allowed to be taken as 12 months, I suppose.
And yes, you could argue that a donation model might work. But how many people will donate to server costs? Would they need a yearly donation drive like BGG or Wikipedia? How quickly would that start to hurt? I personally would rather have a sustainable service, and $3 a month is an incredible price point.