Vuescan Upgrade Program - No Value?

I'm a little confused by the Vuescan upgrade program.

If you have purchased a one-time copy of Vuescan (i.e. not the subscription) then you get to use the program forever, including any updates available in the next 12 months. This sounds fair.

After that, you can pay for the upgrade program, which allows you to receive updates for another 12 months. Once again, no problem with this.

However, the cost of the additional 12 months of updates is the same as purchasing a new copy of the program so why would anyone buy this?

BTW, this is the same whether you include the Black Friday discounts or not. For a new purchase, the deals are attractive.