I made the following comment on John Nack’s Adobe blog:
There are apparent benefits of the CC model, such as frequent updates and access to any and all the Adobe products you require.
However, the downside is the lock-in to a permanent regular payment (monthly, yearly, whatever). Small businesses often have fluctuating fortunes. What is affordable this month may not be affordable next month.
The preceding comment about it being like dealing with the mob is pertinent: “It sure would be a shame if your tools were to stop working.”
In practice one will need to keep a non-CC version of each important Adobe app functional as a fallback in case the subscription cannot be afforded. And perhaps you would need to always keep a backward compatible version of any important work -- an additional complexity and overhead.
With the “boxed” model, you could purchase the current upgrade when you could afford it, and if you didn’t have the money, you could safely wait until later. You had the security of having a recent version and knowing that any work you created using that version would remain accessible to you. With CC you don’t have that security since the subscription can be terminated at any time by Adobe if you cannot continue to pay the subscription.
That’s the risk. And it’s a significant risk.