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It's not directed at us (engineers). It's a sales pitch to internal profit centers with the hope that external LabVIEW engineers will use the arguments to their upper management. In essence it is "this is good for both of us, but mainly us, and means we will listen more, maybe". You will notice there are no concrete or tangible benefits to anyone other than NI. However I don't think this brain-wave coming directly after NXG being killed is coincidence. What is clear is that their mind is made up and now it's just a case of managing the PR. "The beatings will continue until morale improves" - Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty

I suspect they did another one of their "approaches" and hired more consultants to completely miss the point... This is really sad and I fail to see how any of this makes LabVIEW a better product and not just more expensive to their current user base. Responses like this are also a good reason to seek alternatives. NI has made it clear for quite some time that LabVIEW is only an afterthought to their vision. Instead they are building new products to replace the need for LabVIEW ("it's not the only tool"). Customers will eventually use those products over writing their own solutions in LabVIEW, which means more business for NI and a weak argument for LabVIEW. In my opinion, higher prices are also a result of balancing cross-subsidization. In the past, other products likely added to the funds for LabVIEW development in order to drive business. With more and more products replacing the need for LabVIEW, these funds are no longer available. Eventually, when there are not enough customers to fund development, they will pull the plug and sunset the product. On the bright side, they might gain a large enough user base to invest in the long-term development of LabVIEW. They might listen to the needs of their users and improve its strengths and get rid if its weaknesses. They might make it a product that many engineers are looking forward to use and who can't await the next major release to engineer ambitiously I hope for the latter and prepare for the former.