I don't get your logic. When you buy a piece of software, it states clearly what operating systems it runs on. You have only the right to expect that it will run on the operating systems for which it was certified. Software developers do not have the ability to see ahead to operating systems that haven't even been thought of at the time a single app is release. If the issue were with Elements 13, not Elements 11 or 9, then your argument might hold water, but both Yosemite and El Capitan involved a lot of internal changes to the plumbing of OS X, for which the adjustments for older software were non-trivial. If ever software company were required to support older versions of their software in perpetuity, which is what you are basically arguing for, how would they be able to add new features and release new software. Adobe's money comes primarily from the leasing of software to people like me. I get Photoshop and Lightroom together for pretty much the cost of any annual upgrade to Elements. I pay $120 annually for both pieces of software; I could purchase Lightroom outright for a $79 upgrade fee, but that still would leave me short on Photoshop. I have no idea whether Photoshop CS 6 still runs on El Capitan, since it has finally been EOL'd with the last upgrade for Photoshop CC 2015.
If you own Elements 11, and assuming that you didn't own any previous version, then you've gotten more than 4 years of use from the program for your $129. You've also saved the expense of $99 or $79 (prices vary) to upgrade to Elements 12 and Elements 13, and are grousing about paying $99 (current upgrade price) for Elements 14, which does work with El Capitan. As far as I can see, your "rental" cost for Elements has been about $2 per month of eligible use.
Having used OS X since before the conversion to Intel processors, I can't begin to count the number of times I've had to upgrade (for a fee) software to run a newer version of OS X. The switch from the 68000 to the Intel processors required a lot of upgrading over the years, especially when Apple ceased supporting any software that ran on the 68000. By your logic, I shouldn't have ever had to pay money to upgrade from M68000-optimized software to Intel optimized-software.
In my Windows days, and before that MS-DOS, operating systems were upgraded less frequently, but when they were, it invariably required an upgrade to a newer version for a small, or sometimes quite large, fee. That's life in the big city.
I can't run Toast Titanium 12 under El Capitan. I have to upgrade to version 14 (there was no version 13). That grates on me, but if I want the services that Toast provides, and I want to run El Capitan, I have no choice. I ran Yosemite Cache Cleaner, and before that Mavericks Cache Cleaner. When El Capitan came out, I had to upgrade to El Capitan Cache Cleaner. All of these were fee-based upgrades. It is simply the cost to me of doing business.
I respectfully disagree with your stance.
mrf
