this doesn't rustle my jimmies to that extent, but there is a cool breeze swaying my jimmies back and forth.
I'd suggest some tighter fitting jimmies if a cool breeze has them swaying....or keep the jimmies and do some squats - your call!
Seriously though - I can see where you are coming from but I'm not ready to jump on that bandwagon just yet.
They could have easily labelled any of the recent updates GMS v3.x (especially the big change from 2.2.5 > 2.3) and shafted every permanent licence holder by offering no upgrades and moving to sub only from here on out but they didn't. They offered a 12mth Indie sub for free
per licence which was way more generous than I expected.
Would it have been a wise move - no - but they
could have and we'd have no leg to stand on with regards to permanent licences giving access to anything other than what we already had. This alone means they've earned my benefit of the doubt to see where they go with it.
I would expect that the final version of 2.x for permanent licence holders will contain all features that were released in any 2.x version - whether it was initially limited to users who were subbed or not - and that the permanent licence holder can use that final 2.x version in perpetuity with that existing licence - much the same way people still use GM8 even now using licences bought god knows how many years ago.
If that turns out to not be the case then my view would probably change as like you said, the permanent licence was sold for "updates during lifetime of 2.x" or very similar wording which the general person would take to mean "any and all updates to the IDE/Runtime that are labelled as a 2.x version".
The new features are just that - brand new - and it's already been said that they will be available to others later so I'm reading that as what I said above and that they will become a part of 2.x for everyone at some point in the future.
"Major features" being locked to "sub only" could also mean v3.x features which would be locked for permanent licence holders anyway so wouldn't be applicable and there isn't any argument to be had there.
Lastly, offering these to subs only at the start I see as a small reward to people that are actually paying subs currently (not free conversions like myself) and feeding development with sub income, with the bonus that permanent licence holders can get the free conversion and also get access to them. This is why I can't get my head around people claiming things are gated when they clearly aren't at this current moment in time.
Sure you have to claim your free sub time but is a few clicks of the mouse and a couple of minutes of your time really that much of a hassle when you are getting between 1-4yrs of Indie subscription for no extra cost than what you already paid? That seems like a bargain to me!
Speculating about what may or may not happen in the future is largely pointless, but I think YYG have earned enough trust over time with the way they have handled the ongoing transition from permanent to sub and from 2.x to 3.x (for me at least) for me not to jump to the worst possible conclusion before anything has even happened - such as claiming they are locking me out of any features I should be entitled to when I have full access to them for 51mths - for free!
If the final version of GMS2 doesn't include all the features that were added and released in a Stable 2.x version then my view would change as I said, but we can't predict the future and YYG have always tried to do good by the community for the most part and given the circumstances, so let's give them a chance to do the same again before jumping all over them and making silly claims (not you, reddit again...).