The solution here is to come out with a "commercial" version of the platform, which supports multitenancy and other things that apartment building owners could take advantage of. Or, large building owners in general. Maybe even a commercial hub with serial ports that can integrate with legacy building controls/ICS/etc.
Have your commercial clients pay the big bucks for features they need, and keep selling hubs to homeowners for their stuff.
I am not opposed to paying a premium, (an on going monthly fee), for some sort of "upgraded service". I'm deliberately leaving that vague (what kind of service?) because I just don't know - I usually make some sort of a "value proposition". That is, what kind of value am I getting and what price are they asking for it.
I do think that HE is getting there in terms of stability and usability. and It certainly shines in the area of Home Automation (specifically the Rule Machine feature is really amazing). However, in terms of "polish" I believe that it has some way to go before we can say that it has a "competitive advantage". What does "polish" mean? I believe that an external app (as they have described it), would add a certain "luster" to the product. Better zwave/zigbee internal utilities would add some "shine" to the product. A "slicker" UI would help to "distinguish" the product. Etc.
Nonetheless, we should all be very thankful for the current (great) state of the product (especially after just 1 year), and the significant efforts of the community and staff to help users.
In my OPINION, they should make the 'upcoming' app a paid item (and not a one time fee either, recurring) to generate ongoing revenue.
My reasoning? The app is 100% optional, and provides additional functionality. That makes it prime for an optional paid adder.
Don't want to pay for it? Then keep using Life 360, Pushover, and cloud dashboards.
Strange as it may sound, I actually agree you and that suggestion. If they could add some additional caching to the app to speed up cloud dashboards I may even buy it.. 
Or, what if the basic app was free... but additional optional features were a small fee. For example, the free app could provide one geofence for mobilepresence. An optional paid feature could expand that to include multiple locations, instead of just one. And... maybe add WiFi presence as a paid option?
Just an idea...
Considering how far and great your box has come I'm excited to see how you are going to get me to hand over more money.
They are just waiting for us to get more hooked.. then bam. Hit us with the fee we are now forced to pay. Its like a drug dealer giving us some samples.
I, for one, would happily pay $0.99 for a working and meaningful task monitor and system resource monitor. 
( ducks before things are thrown at him )
A reseller model might be interesting. I can see a market to set up multiple accounts for clients and manage them from a pro-level dashboard and charge them a subscription per month for providing a full-fat home automation service, including the hub, several levels/packages of devices, and service (set-up of standard and customised rules, and maintenance). Sell it to property developers.
There is a home seller around here using zwave locks and a raspberry pi to let you look at vacant homes at will with an app. So there is a market.
I would happily pay $1000 for the root password!
Add a camera and you can tune in and watch the squatters when they get settled in lol
Could probably get a hacker to do that for half that on a number of sites if you really wanted to... 
They had cameras to make sure you leave and you had to take a photo of your ID and yourself. Before you can squat you would need to establish residence and I think they will call the cops before you get the chance.
You know that's sort of an unreasonable ask. Behind that password is essentially all of their IP since everything runs locally.
Besides, what would you do with it? They practically give us everything we ask for (and more).
It was, of course, said in jest! 
Andy
I read the opening comment and then sorta skimmed this thread up to May 2019 (not sure if anyone is reading this thread anymore) but I will tell you as an exWink user, if Hubitat starts springing monthly/annual fees it will TICK-OFF a lot of us! The only thing I'd justify as a fee is a monitoring service, which I wouldn't use, otherwise I'd only hope that Hubitat has a financial model where the revenues generated by the hardware and potentially licensing fees from zwave/zigbee sensor/automation manufactures cover the cost of maintaining the software. What would be really disappointing is if a higher level of easier to use and cooler looking software and apps was held over us at a cost while the rest of us are stuck with the base essentials interface.
I also fly drones (DJI, EagleTree and others) and own electric skateboards (Trampa and Backfire) that include some slick user interfaces and to date, with maybe 10 years of those industries and so far no monthly fees...they have been able to pull off a model based on selling the hardware...hope it stays that way with Hubitat.
Ive been here for a few years. If they started with a subscription I wouldn't be mad. I'd embrace it.
You will see as time goes on, their updates and innovation is great and has been constantly happening since the beginning. They are very active in the community and any subscription will more than be worth it. If things seem quiet from them, its because they are busy working on the next update. They are always working on something new.
I wouldn't be surprised that if they do come up with a subscription service it will probably be optional for premium services or they will at least give you more than a week to sort out things before it kicks in. That seemed to be the biggest gripe with wink.
5$ a month for a system that runs your house, is constantly updated with new features and innovations and is supported but the community and the developers themselves is worth it to me.
I lose more money than that on a monthly basis in the washing machine. 
I really need to check my pant pockets more often.
Note: These thoughts are all my own. I have no insider information and no market research has been done. Its just my opinion.
Note 2: Lots of grammar errors in this post. I was very emotional when typing it. 
I wish the Z-Wave and Zigbee alliance or hardware suppliers paid us to support their protocols/products, such is not the case.
We feel lucky sometimes if a manufacturer donates products for us to certify...
No one is ever going to pay an HA platform anything substantive for device support...
Premium OTT services.. Absolutely .. I'd buy in... There is a big difference between add on services vs the ransom that Wink held over their users..
Download the Hubitat app
