PTC seems driven by profit to their detriment. When customers are already paying maintenance for a product, they shouldn't have to purchase new features that are developed for that same product, especially when these features are going to be bundled with future purchases of the same product anyway (ex. manikin, flexible modeling, etc.)
The whole issue with Creo being able to open non-native CAD data (Unite functionality) when not connected to Windchill, but prohibited from doing so when it is connected to Windchill is a perfect example. The licensing team was so concerned that people would stop buying the other workgroup managers and instead just use Creo to upload this non-native CAD data into Windchill that they required the Creo team to disable this promised, and paid-for Creo functionality when used in a Windchill environment. (From what I heard, the Creo team was pretty frustrated.)
Summary:
- Buy Creo ($) = Full Unite functionality
- Buy Creo + Windchill ($$) = Limited Unite functionality
- Buy Creo + Windchill + Extra Workgroup Managers ($$$) = Fully restored Unite functionality
I wish PTC was more interested in developing customers for life instead of extracting as much money as possible at every turn.