That is my biggest complaint about the Mac App store. I think in general prices have been reduced for most apps. But upgrade pricing is a must for customer retention. If they try to sell me the next version of Logic for 199 Im not buying it. I spent 599 for logic 8 platinum, 129(I think) for logic 9 upgrade and then 199 for Logic pro X. Im not interested in giving them another couple of hundred dollars for a while.
You picked a bad example. Yes, you need to purchase Logix X for 199, but you probably won't need to pay for any Logic updates in the foreseeable future. While the lack of update pricing is a problem for many developers, it's also a feature of Apple's software. They usually simply don't do priced updates. As far as I remember the upgrade from Logic 9 to X was free on the App Store.
Furthermore the full price of 199 could very well be mistaken for an upgrade offer - it's a very reasonable price.
Logic Pro is a professional DAW as I'm sure you are aware given your years with it. If you can't afford the $199 upgrade, you should probably just use Garageband for free. Personally I prefer this pricing strategy over requiring a monthly subscription. And $199 is far cheaper than the alternatives.
I agree- however, if you follow what other DAW upgrades cost(and I agree, forget this monthly subscription crap)
Studio One Upgrade from 2-3(highest version) - 149
Reason 8 upgrade from any version - 129(sometimes 99)
Cubase 8 upgrade - 75
Logic is pretty expensive to upgrade for what usually amounts to a free plugin or two and minor functionality increases...
