I spend more on Amazon Prime yearly, than the yearly subscription to the indie subscription would be. Not bad, if I keep on chasing my dream of starting a small game design studio(just me solo, outsourcing art/sound). And, if things pick up, and I create something worthy of a console release. What is an extra $800/year? I pay way more than that for other basic things I use everyday... Wasn't the previous model more expensive for console exports? You had to pay for each console, and it was yearly? If I'm remembering the products page before the current change, correctly.
For now I've got my Desktop license, and mobile license I bought, which is all I need for right now. If I want to do more in the future, or a new version comes out, I'll jump on board with the indie license to begin with, and go from there.
But, I think the change will do mixed things for GameMaker Studio, as others have already pointed out. The ones that are serious, and like the engine, and will use it regularly, will have no problem. For a hobbyist though(I didn't touch GMS for months/years at a time), I would just buy a one off license, and switch to another engine, honestly. I was around during the old community days, before the partnership between Mark Overmars and YoYo Games, then becoming acquired by YoYoGames, and now Opera(but still has the same dev team, as far as I know). I remember some of the earliest releases of GameMaker, and it's come a loooong way since then.
The entrepreneur/digital marketer in me, knows that the subscription model can be the best model in the long run for many products. I hope the switch does great things for the company, and the products produced!
Peace
EDIT: And, as also pointed out. The hobbyist could portentially just stick to the free subscription, to play around with game creation using GMS. Then sign up, if they want to make an executable. As
@gnysek pointed out, it might be nice for that demographic to have a cheaper model, maybe like $5/month, $50/year. Just to export to either desktop, or html5(they decide one or the other and stick to it), that way they can share with friends, and whatnot, and have a way to export some of their creations in a way that makes sense to them.