I assume its switch to subscription payments

It switched from being a product that you can buy, to a service to which you must subscribe in perpetuity.

AKA IAP subscription cancer

A few years ago, 1password became an electron app - and the Internet seemed to lose its mind when that happened.

I think they’re referring to the forced changeover to cloud hosting and subscription services.

For years you could buy 1Password and then store your vault on your own syncing service like Dropbox. You owned the software and controlled your data. Then they switched to subscription-only and forced you to use their cloud. Really changed the nature of their software for many of us.

I think it’s native (rust) on Linux. The OP is probably referring to subscription and dropping support for syncing via. Dropbox.

The UI is Electron, especially on Linux as it was the move to Electron that allowed them to do a Linux port. The data layer is all Rust and shared widely across their ecosystem as I understand it.

Honestly the whole UI thing was overblown. It's a great Electron app, and their macOS app was always a little iffy (old AppKit oddities). The port unlocked: Linux, a fully featured Windows client, noticeably faster improvements (Watchtower, family sharing, improved SSH and CLI support), and seems to have allowed for much better apps on iOS and Android, all at likely no user cost.