I consider so-called subscriptions to use software to be closer to rent, rather than a payment for something new every day/week/month such as from a publication. In the latter, people at the other end are producing new stuff for me and other subscribers, and copyright acknowledged, we can keep what they produced and use it as long and as many times as we want. So that is really a completed sale each period - I paid for that month’s issue and they sent it to me.
Unlike that, if I don’t pay rent, I lose my right to this home. I think “rent” is a much closer term for say, use of a software package. If I don’t pay Adobe/MS/whomever, I lose use of their software and often access to the material I created with their software. The companies claim I’m getting the benefit of their bug fixes and enhancements, but they’re not really sending me new work product that I want, and plenty of mature apps do fine unchanged for years. Look up “rents” in an economics textbook.
So I think the term “subscription” obscures some real differences in these relationships and transactions. Rather than quibble about words, maybe the survey could use subscription categories. What come to mind are: issuance (has a product received by subscriber), usage (time or bit-consumption-based), and access (permission-based). Might be more, or this might make it too complicated…