Seriously, this decision wouldn't be made without a lot of discussion and some research/statistics. Ledger is a company, business and aim is to increase profit. Me and you analyze that by implementing this subscription service, one thing is clear, we have to pay money for worsened security. I'm laughing so much, just thinking, what a stupid person you should be to pay money for a service that absolutely abandons the idea of owning a hardware wallet. I mean, you buy a hardware wallet for improved security and then subscribe their service for decreased security, this is such a crazy thing. But Ledger packs all of these positively, in order to generate money, you need to conquer the heart of majority, not minority, majority of people are not smart, minority are, they simply take an advantage of the situation.
How not to run a company, 101.
I bet their sales will increase, we will see. It offers people an option that they want. Do people lose their keys? Yes. Do they want a recovery option? Yes. Do people think that hardware wallet is safer than any other type of wallet? Yes but do they know why? No, they have just heard that. Do people think that they are confiscating their security by subscribing ledger's service? No. I know it sounds crazy but don't expect people to think and analyze things the way you do.
One thing that came to my mind is also their market research. Surely they should have done it right?
"Ledger Recover is what our future 100m of customers want - they will onboard into crypto in a secure way with Ledger Recover." -@_pgauthier
"Ask yourself... Where do users keep their private keys... On an exchange 🙈 @cz_binance In the cloud 🙈 On a password manager 🙈 In a software wallet 🙈Ledger Recover fixes this. It will also help the next 100M users to onboard self custody 😎 And... (1) You dont have to use it if you don't want to (2) it changes nothing to your ledger. Only you are in charge of your private keys and what you do with them..."-@_pgauthier
I think it seems clear that regardless of any market research outcome of their current customers, and any potential future customer outlook, they have chosen another path.
Ledger has proven didn't protect its customer data. Twice, due to the hacks incident. And now they are moving this way to implement such a system. Those who need it, notwithstanding any consequences, are free to utilize it, on the other hand, anyone who at least bothers to have some "standard" should refrain from using any of Ledger devices and educates other about its risks. Even the key extraction is possible in the first place, it is not worth advocating for them to stop it.