So close... but why the subscription? It just needs to stuff the data into Apple Health when it is within range of my phone.

It is actually tempting, but I can't support a subscription based hardware product. Just charge me whatever the device cost + profits.

NB that Whoop did pull a fast one on users. People signed up with the promise they wouldn’t have to pay for hardware upgrades. Whoop recently dropped that right before releasing their first hardware upgrade.