Am I just being kinda overly critical and paranoid or are others noticing this?
Hard to tell without knowing the product and the company. the final product may be assembled here, and some 'local' touch added to it, for which some warehouse should be enough, but I would imagine all parts/components are being manufactured somewhere overseas where labor is cheaper.
And it won't change overnight, not even after our leaders suddenly have realized it may not have been the fucking brightest idea ever to get rid of our production capacities (and worse, to get rid of our skilled workers and our expertise). Those can't be recreated from scratch by political discourses. It will take a lot of time, will-power and efforts from all of us, and a lot of money. All things it looks like we're in short supply of (contrary to political discourses, those we have plenty alas nobody want to buy those ;)
Older dude question here: are students so wealthy nowadays they can spend that much money every month for a single service? Heck, back in my 20s I could not afford most books I was required to read for university (I love you, libraries & used book stores). I also befriended the girl selling the tickets at the cinema, so she would let me in for free (plus, she was a cool gal too, I was not that hypocritical ;)
Also, if we are to adopt EU AI instead of the US-based ones shouldn't they try their hardest to get more customers by lowering their price? Even more so in regards to younger customers, aka potentially very long-term customers. Or did I miss something?
To me, those so called 'reduced' pricing are more like a worrying sign there is a growing disconnect between some businesses and their customers.