and you guys are upset because they're trying to do things that ensure the place hangs around for a while longer?

We are upset because they AREN'T. Their current meager discounts and Prime neutering has eliminated any semblance of marketing advantage over the competition. People consider Daz and Hivewire (and formerly, RDNA) to all have much better deals. In short, Renderosity is no longer competitive with other sites in the sales and web design categories. If people can get exponentially better deals at other sites, then they will spend their limited monthly allotment of cash reserved for 3D sites somewhere else. Prime was once considered by many here to be superior to Daz's Platinum Club despite the steep price, but no longer.
If Prime had to change like Platinum Club did a few years back, then the changes should have been minor. The changes at DAZ were pretty minor-- prices increased up to 2.5x what they were before, but backlog remained the same. Fewer sales included additional discounts for Platinum Club members for non-Daz originals. Nonetheless, PC is still a steal at the price it is, and no additional attempts were made to push people to join PC. (They did make those dumb "get x discount if you buy x" however-- though in their defense, they have greatly simplified those sale stipulations since last December because customers found it much too confusing and/or too much to keep track of. Though time will tell if they continue that policy when March Madness begins.)

In comparison, Hivewire3D's sales aren't usually that generous, but they are combined with rewards points and the ability to customize the product bundles-- a feature which no other major MP has.