Hey, it’s months later, and this might not be relevant anymore, but here are my 2 cents:
The spectator function might be the thing to put behind the subscription barrier. It is crucial if you want to use shmeppy in your games, but absolutely unnecessary if you want to just try out the map editing functions.
Of course, some clever individuals will just use screen sharing to circumvent the subscription cost, and while I don’t think those were ever going to be paying customers, you might lose money if you allow it.