I invested the last 3 years in learning the basics of UE. During this process, I felt in love with cinematics. I invested a lot of my private funds in assets, private lessons, and finally online courses, but the worst is time. I spent countless hours, nights, and a huge amount of my free time learning, and as a father of three kids, I feel really uncomfortable now. I do not earn on Unreal (sold something maybe 2-3 times in final), I make it for fun ATM. Now, after all these investments, I receive the information that I need to pay a monthly plan starting in January. I do not pay for Adobe; I use Affinity, look how it’s growing. Please do not force people to use Blender.
Another thing to consider, It’s the wrong way to sort people into game and non-game developers. I understand that Unity was a great test for you, but we are all one.
Unreal is strong because of the community that pushes you to go forward, like Blender.
I am fine to pay, but I will not afford the Adobe-style plan that you suggested. There is a massive number of people who do it just for fun or make a really small profit, keep that in mind.