My feeling is the upgrade price was a little higher than I had expected, before I knew iRay was going to be bundled. With iRay included it is a very fair price in my opinion and I am not wealthy either but I do place value on good tools and their continuing development.
The idea that you buy one version and get upgrades for life for free or really cheap is nice but not a business model that is sustainable. Allegorithmic are growing and need to grow their staff and facilities it all costs money. If we want new features in the future we have to pay now.
I have been with Painter since the start and this is the first paid update in a long line of amazing features, sure it sucks if you bought earlier this year but it happens with phones too do you think Samsung should give you the new model at a discount too

Would I have liked to pay less sure especially on my limited budget, do I think it fair I do!
Cheers
Mark
PS I am not sponsored by Allegorithmic and complain enough when it is required.