Can you trust a theme that can be disabled

Pagelines was the only theme I have used since it was released. I started out with their old product Platform. I have paid the developer “lifetime” fee for the full blown version (of both). It is a great product… until now.

Now, to get beyond just the basics, you have to pay a monthly fee.

Oh, I am grandfathered since I paid for it. ONLY all the sites I have developed using Pagelines suddenly won’t work saying they need to be enabled. And I still haven’t got my authorization key from them. But really, do I even want to enable it? Don’t I really want to replace the theme?

Can you trust a theme that can be disabled at a whim? Do you want to build your company on that kind of shaky foundation. Do you want a knife to your throat saying now that you are using us, keep paying.