I also think it's a webmaster talking.
However. We all know why recurring billing happened. It happened to pay for traffic and now as someone said it keeps some alive. Given the option members will opt for a non recurring time after time or cancel as soon as they join. They learned by experience. We taught them.
Most sites aren't worth a recurring membership. Will used the example of 10,000 videos. What about the sites with 100 videos all the same? The industry killed a great way to make main niche sites more attractive to recurring billing. Non exclusive content of semi exclusive. But it didn't fit the model of Affiliates submitting galleries to TGP sites.
But what if shooters good enough could sell a solo girl scene for $100 10 times. It encourages more better shooters to shoot more better scenes. Getting shooters to shoot 5 scenes for $1,500 was the model. Result was low quality work and 1 scene for $300 instead of 3. Doesn't have to be all non exclusive or semi. Mix it in with exclusive and give that to affiliates.
As I said it doesn't fit the affiliates needs. Like recurring billing fits the affiliates needs so did content production.
Today the cat is out of the bag. The damage is done and giving out free content everywhere is the model.
Changing the billing method might over time bring some back. Changing the pricing structure might bring some back. But the immediate effect will be a loss of a lot of money which will send most bankrupt. They can't afford to wait for the business to turn around.