There are two alternatives out there. Subscription plan which is actually an annual maintenance plan, and out right purchase of a license + periodic upgrades. Either way, if you want to stay current, there will be an ongoing expense, because of the cost of ongoing support and R&D.

You can pay for the subscription annually or monthly. Paying for it annually makes it similar to paying for regular upgrades, like On1Raw and Capture One - which offer both plans. But unlike Adobe, purchasing licenses instead of annual maintenance is less expensive with ON1 and Capture 1. Considering the costs of purchasing the last licensed versions of Photoshop and Lightroom, I am still ahead of the game with regards to cost. The last versions cost me $1300 and over the past 8 yrs I have spent $960 in subscriptions. If you project the cost of updates to both PS and LR, which were roughly $300 every 18 months, the subscription cost advantage is even clearer.

I have tried numerous alternates, and in my quest for a better solution did not find one. However, I did find several applications that in one way or another perform some functions better than LR/PS, but none are constitute a complete replacement. As a result I use Capture One, On1 and DXO Photolab in addition to and with LR/PS as alternate processors to LR. Your mileage will likely be different so you should do your homework and find out what makes sense for you. But how you pay for software should not be a factor - unlike annual cost which is most definitely a factor.

Lightroom's catalog, which contains your image modifications are your data, and Adobe lets you use LR to view/print your images even in the event that you chose to terminate your payments.

No worries Flakes. Do keep in mind though that your posts remain forever. There are a few of mine I would like to delete, to the best of my knowledge, it cannot be done. There are a couple buttons at the bottom of each post. The "Reply" button basically replies to all. The "Quote Reply" button allows you to respond to a particular person/post. Regarding your recent post, if you mean to say you only used LR two times in 2020 then I agree it's not worth it to you. Please do whatever makes the most sense to you. I think the Adobe bundle is a bargain but I use it a lot. I certainly wouldn't pay for it if I only used it twice a year.