The Affinity press release shows exactly the same “We’re so excited and grateful” bullshit as Pixologic wrote when they had sold themselves to Maxon. It’s predominantly a case of commercial self-interest, as usual.
The FAQ is also reminiscent of the ZBrush FAQ after the Maxon take-over: there’s no explicit “There won’t be a subscription”. 
Maxon introduced subscriptions faster than you could process the Pixologic take-over.