Nah, that's why you cannot not afford the subscriptions these days. Whatever your needs, ever since Claude Code became a thing, subscription costs come out massively cheaper than pay-as-you-go per-token API pricing. Also SOTA models are so much better than anything else, that using older or open models will just cost you more in tokens/electricity than going for SOTA subscription.

Subscriptions are definitely middle-class targeted. $20/month is not much for the value provided, at least not in the western world.

But if by "rich" you just mean "westerners", then in this sense, the same is and has always been true for computing in general.

Not sure. AI is sort of car ownership price. I think while that ain't poor, that is middle class.

So like if you want to start a business of any sort the AI sub is still peanuts.

AI is a car, or a dog, or a mild social life, or a utility bill level of cost. And thats for the level needed for a sane typical developer. (AI maximalists need 250k/y, let them slop it out)

It is not a Cessna, an infinity pool or a 1 month vacation.