Yes, you can also subscribe to Modo on a monthly basis instead of buying the license, breaking down the cost even further - I’ve been asking for similar options with Houdini - we’ll see what happens. At least they listen to the Indie community - which I could say the same with Modo Indie. Feels abandoned and you get updates sometimes months and months after the people who have the full release - if you get it. It was a letdown to many people and still is - if you just take a look at how serious Autodesk is taking the Maya lt version. I’m sure they will give the indie version more love in the future, I guess it just does not have that many users yet.
When it comes to Houdini, I feel like it may be slightly more expensive, but it is not striped down like Maya lt (thought we mostly have the full version of Modo with the indie version thankfully) - in fact it is based off of the Houdini fx version, so you can mess around with the VFX tools as well. I also feel like you do not have as many restrictions as compared to Maya lt or Modo indie for game design, but have not done and in depth comparison yet.