I don't like that the very first thing you see when you click on download is "purchase for $40" and then they list the benefits of doing so, which basically boil down to:
1- custom gnome themes
2- Professional-grade creative suite of apps
3- Advanced productivity software
Number 1 is a joke.
Number 2 & 3 I think are basically scams. What apps? They don't list them at all. If they are proprietary then how can you support these apps with this pricing model, if they are not, then are they just downloadable by anyone on almost any distro for free?
The entire thing smells bad. I vote to stay far away.
just choose the 0 dollar option and install that stuff yourself. They are looking to sustain their development, and users coming from Apple are used to paying fees; Windows users.. maybe.
I think it's OK for them to try and sell extras, but I do agree that it shouldn't be the first thing on the downloads page. At least put the paid and free options side by side, then have the lite version down below that.