Subscriptions are now the current method of making money for any sort of company. To avoid them you have to be the old skool users of torrents and all, its not tough and can be learnt, but that grind if you want to avoid you have to pay. I have been keeping a minimum of subscriptions that I dont need, like TV series.
To have savings avoiding the subscriptions to the different services is essential. This frugal approach is important in todays world of excessive spending and it is not tough to incorporate but a bit painful at first. This should also be taught to the younger generation to instill the nature in them.
There are so many platforms that you can subscribe today. However, you need to be smart on things so you won't spend a lot on them. As you said, just subscribe to your basic needs. You will know if it is not necessary, if you are just using it several times a month. Think of cutting off that subscription before it will add to your expenses.
There is no real transparency and you are not really getting a real breakdown of the costs. But we pay anyway. Are they actually worth it or we just do not have a choice anymore in a world where everything has to be subscribed to?
Whether it's worth it or not depends on the user, for example I subscribe to Netflix every month because I love watching movies plus I don't need to find illegal website sources that are full of advertisements, sometimes the subtitles are bad. With an official subscription we get clear subtitles, no ads and of course the official movies we watch also get official benefits. This is our way of appreciating the work of someone who has presented our favorite movies. So it can be said that it is worth it means mutual benefit to each other. unless you prefer to use illegal services, in addition to harming other parties it is also considered not to appreciate someone's work.
That's a good example of paying a subscription that is worth your money. But there are still a lot of subscriptions that we don't actually need as most of the time, you are not fully utilizing it. So check your current subscriptions and see how regular you use such subscription. If you rarely use it, better unsubscribe to lessen some of your expenses.