You’re missing the early days when plex lifetime pass was ~$50usd and jellyfin wasn't a thing (that I know of). I believe Kodi was the only real competitor at the time, and it was much less friendly.

Plex has slowly moved in a less user friendly direction, but still meets my needs and I’ve easily gotten over $750 in value from the…almost 20 years, wow…I’ve been using it.