That was my point. If I'm using something for only the 2nd time, then statistically it's very unknown whether I'll ever use a 3rd time. If I paid for it now, there's a good chance I'd be throwing away my money.
Whereas if I've used something 20 times, then it's extremely likely I'll be using it another 20, 50, 100, or 1,000 times. It's clearly worth paying for after 20 times.
In your example above (needing it every 3 months) it would take over 5 years to reach that point.
I'm going to guess that within those 5 years it's likely that the developer would have released a new major release (with a new trial period), or that you would have reinstalled your OS (resetting the trial timer), or that you would have gotten a new computer...
> In your example above (needing it every 3 months) it would take over 5 years to reach that point.
That wasn't my example. It was 3 months between the first and second times.
In my experience, your need for a tool often increases gradually. You have a one-off project that needs a tool briefly, then a couple of projects a few months later you need to try it more, then it becomes a regular thing.
It's pretty rare that I go from never needing a tool to needing it constantly as an instant switch. Which is the only scenario where 7/14/30-day trials make sense.
That was my point. If I'm using something for only the 2nd time, then statistically it's very unknown whether I'll ever use a 3rd time. If I paid for it now, there's a good chance I'd be throwing away my money.
Whereas if I've used something 20 times, then it's extremely likely I'll be using it another 20, 50, 100, or 1,000 times. It's clearly worth paying for after 20 times.