If your subscription dies, after a while, you lose access to your downloads page. Very well known info, if you follow the forums, which you should if you pay good money for a product.
Sorry but that is just totally unreasonable. Firstly, I think it's highly debatable whether this is "very well known info". In my case, I found out about Fences somewhere on the internet and wanted to buy it. The Fences page does not list that you'll only get updates for a single year. Nor on its product page, nor when it's in your cart.
So, when you add it to your cart you'll get a popup to upgrade to Objects Desktop for a heavily discounted price, ok seems like a good deal. Your cart gets updated and still no mention of getting updates for only one year. You then click on the Object Desktop to see what other software is contained and for me, Multiplicity seemed useful since I was using a different program which I wasn't totally happy with. On this page, it does in fact state on the end of the first paragraph that you'll get: "... instant access to our award winning software applications and access to new product releases and updates for a year.". Ok, I didn't read the info on the Objects Desktop page, but this is because it's only a summary of all the applications it contains and you're better of reading the pages of all of those particular applications (which in turn do NOT mention anything regarding a single year of downloads and updates.
This stuff just needs to be clearly listed on the all product pages, which it isn't. It's almost like Stardock deliberately tries to make this as obscure as possible. Your statement seems to confirm this since "It is all over these forums...", and you even think that people need to follow the forums to find out about this. I don't think it would be all over these forums if it were actually clear in the first place that you'll only be able to download and update software within one year after purchase
Secondly, why would someone actually need to follow a forum for a product they bought in the first place? Most users buy stuff just to use it, and not to check the forums to find out how they might be allowed to use it and how long etc. You can't expect the user to search the forum to figure the stuff out which need to be clearly displayed on the product page! You might have time to read through the forums, but I for one don't want to read through the forums of all of the software I bought, it would be a day job for sure.
While I can respect Stardock limiting downloads and updates to a single year, it's their software and they need to make money off of it. But I don't respect that they don't make this clear enough when you order software from them. I was pretty annoyed to find out after I bought the software that it was limited to a single year. Granted, at first I didn't even know that you were allowed to continue using the software after the year expired, which is also something I think they could be more clear about. But this isn't the biggest issue since I'm relieved I can keep on using the software.
I recommend archiving all your apps at least quarterly. This way, you have all the different versions that you are entitled to, because OSes change.
This actually is sensible advice, and I will surely do this for all of the Object Desktop software, now that I still have my licence.