My proposal is that if we could buy a basic version of cubase, like elements, but on that to be able to buy some extra capabilities. There are some add ons in all versions that I don’t need, and I cannot afford to buy the pro version. I would buy many things that I don’t need.
I have the elements 15, and I would like to have “render in place”, “ominvocal”, “variaudio”, “chords track” in “key-editor”, not the “control room” and many others. If it would be possible then I guess Steinberg would earn more and customers would be more satisfied, even if it would cost more.
Generally I understand this request as for me I‘m using only parts of all capabilities.
On the other hand from a developer perspective I understand why they don‘t do like you would like it. To make it modular as you request would increase the effort of development and testing. Because of possible dependencies they would have to test any combination of all modules to get this reliable and stable. I would assume that this would increase the overall cost.
So I prefer a stable and well tested version that maybe includes too much for me. And sometimes I started to use features I thought I wouldn‘t need when I saw a well done YT tutorial with good explanations.