See, if this was local software that you could buy once and keep forever, an event like this would not have felt so full of foreboding.
On cloud-based web apps, there is no opt-out short of ceasing use of the program entirely. Don't want their new features? Too bad, we're going to roll them out anyway, and there is no turning back after that.
I'm still puttering along just fine on a copy of Office 2010, so my opinions may not be representative of the majority.
If this was local software, you'd lose out on most of the collaborative benefits that Figma provides. That collaboration, especially with guest accounts is one of the reasons for the explosive growth and popularity. If this was a buy it once tool that required IT support for collaboration it wouldn't have nearly this growth trajectory or industry adoption.
You can make local software with collaboration support. It is possible to make Figma so that you can do your design locally even if your Internet is kaput.
The central server only needs to handle shared data - and we already have plenty of protocols for that so that there can be multiple companies that provide that service or, if you prefer, allow you to self host.
URLs can handle the rest, this is why they exist after all.
Well, I can't quite get my Word 5.1a to run anymore. It was the best version of Word to ever have lived. Unfortunately, it only runs on 68k and PPC macs (on the latter even under emulation, IIRC). Software has a limited lifetime, unfortunately. Bit rot may be metaphorical, but it does happen.
On cloud-based web apps, there is no opt-out short of ceasing use of the program entirely. Don't want their new features? Too bad, we're going to roll them out anyway, and there is no turning back after that.
I'm still puttering along just fine on a copy of Office 2010, so my opinions may not be representative of the majority.