I expect the previous versions to stop getting compatibility updates which is a bigger problem on macOS than Windows, but that's the deal with buying a license vs monthly subscriptions.
It's so much cheaper that I'll take that trade any day. I'm guessing v3 will be an eventual AI focused update since that's an area where they haven't tried to compete with Photoshop in v2.
But you can keep using your previous version after you stop getting updates. With Adobe you have to keep paying, even if you don't care about updates anymore.
Exactly! I will say that Adobe still does add features to the CC subscription[1], but the things I spend 90% of my time using in CC haven't changed all that much in the past decade. I'd be OK with continuing to use an older version. I only have a CC subscription because it's what my employer uses. If we all used Affinity instead, I'd be perfectly OK with that and we'd have more money in the bank.
[1] Contrast that to a company like Salesforce, which charges every year for its core product then adds most of the interesting new features to outside products with separate subscriptions.
This is what stops me. I've experienced too many instances of a full version upgrade with a sunset on previous versions.