I personally believe it’s futile to discuss how Bandlab can cut features to allow them to sell a perpetual Sonar license.
They aren’t going to do it. The answer you got was the standard “Oh we’re thinking about it. Stay tuned.” Oh sure we will.
There is no reason or value to Bandlab to offer a perpetual license. If they thought it made financial sense, they would have already done it. It doesn’t make financial sense. Stand-alone Sonar isn’t financially viable. There is no ciphering, calculation or marketing survey that will change that. They know they can’t get back many of the users they lost.
Why do you think Cakewalk got passed around so many times? Multiple attempts were made to make money of it standalone. It didn’t work.
If a person is going to try and use the “We will get your music out there and you’ll be famous!” come-on then using Sonar makes sense. It’s a damn good product but if you just want a DAW that won’t stop working if you stop paying, there isn’t anything compelling to use it outside of Bandlab.
If you like the product and don’t mind rental fees, use it. It works very well. But wishing for a perpetual license is futile in my opinion.