From the start of offering the Trainz Plus subscription, the Trianz Plus version has had additional new features; the first Trainz Plus release after TRS19 itself (Trainz Plus had early access to TRS19 itself) included exclusive new features (the new camera options, new menu bar in Surveyor, new session logging window, controller support and an early implementation of what is now the TCCP interface).No and fair enough.
The subscription was bought in as an alternative choice. The benefit was that you gained access to new features before the next retail version. The problem there was that it could look like you were playing extra to beta test the new features.
So N3V have moved the goalposts. The retail version is now inferior to the subscription version and I imagine will stay so. Personally that means I will not buy any new retail until it is substantially discounted, I have no incentive to do do. If I'm behind the cutting edge, I may as well stay way behind the cutting edge as it's a considerable financial benefit to do so.
So this isn't new, or different, from when Trainz Plus was launched. Trainz Plus provides early access to new features, most of these will be intended for future retail releases (and sometimes might be added in patches for the current retail version; as is the case with the new Treez/Plant Factory system), however sometimes these may not make it to retail versions for various reasons (ie there have sometimes been changes made, that later themselves get replaced before a retail version).
Regards