Look, i worked in tech support for a S&P500 company, they overcharge for everything, most of that shit could be setup independently they just offered a "complete hw&sw suite" for a fuckload of money. The thing was also poorly maintained because a support call was 200$ after a year promo period. Things would break all the time. On the other side of that story, ppl called in when their electrical breaker went down and would not switch it back on my instructions but requested a paid field tech upwards of 350$ (plus the call price) to come and SWITCH A BREAKER. I mean that is absolutely crazy, no? So, +200$ for a couple of driver features that just make things easier for you is peanuts compared to what businesses pay for stuff. Even a humane tech support is easily worth +200$ for the lifetime of the product, shut up and take my money.

PPC:

Look, i worked in tech support for a S&P500 company, they overcharge for everything, most of that crap could be setup independently they just offered a "complete hw&sw suite" for a fuckload of money. The thing was also poorly maintained because a support call was 200$ after a year promo period. Things would break all the time. On the other side of that story, ppl called in when their electrical breaker went down and would not switch it back on my instructions but requested a paid field tech upwards of 350$ (plus the call price) to come and SWITCH A BREAKER. I mean that is absolutely crazy, no? So, +200$ for a couple of driver features that just make things easier for you is peanuts compared to what businesses pay for stuff. Even a humane tech support is easily worth +200$ for the lifetime of the product, shut up and take my money.

Companies were doing and will continue to do it, does not mean it's a right thing to do. Sure some idiots will pull money just like that, but most people, even rich ones are not going to. Maybe companies like matrox or the place you worked at had calculated already how many stupid people are there willing to pay, fine let them pay, but it doesn't mean it's successful and sustainable business strategy.