> People said the same about $200 a month

This is missing an important context. And I actually remember this well, because I was saying that too. And the reason I was saying is that $200 plan didn't come with API usage, it was a chat plan.

It made no sense up until they started including API usage. Just as $500 makes no sense now.

> costs going to 10% of white collar income.

There's a permanent and ever lowering ceiling maintained by open weight models. It makes no sense to justify paying 10% of income permanently for something that will get you unlimited local inference for a 6 month subscription cost.