I think it is correlated to the rise of free (as in $0) software.
People don't like to pay and developers want to make money. So the strategy is to make the initial cost low, preferably zero, and then make the user pay, directly or indirectly. It is not new, we had things like shareware in the past, but now, developers have more options, and they use them, because the most "user-hostile" thing is to ask for money, especially a large up-front payment.
I know some people prefer to pay, but they are a minority, and therefore, it is not the most profitable way to monetize.
People don't like to pay and developers want to make money. So the strategy is to make the initial cost low, preferably zero, and then make the user pay, directly or indirectly. It is not new, we had things like shareware in the past, but now, developers have more options, and they use them, because the most "user-hostile" thing is to ask for money, especially a large up-front payment.
I know some people prefer to pay, but they are a minority, and therefore, it is not the most profitable way to monetize.