Hi M,
While i do understand your situation but you must also understand that maintaining the products involves man power and man hours, both of which are to be compensated by us.
The membership allows one to download and use the product on their site for life (unless otherwise stated) but it does not provide life time support or upgrades.
Joomla 1.5 and Joomla 2.5 versions are different and it did take a lot of efforts on our part to get products updated and fixed for the latest version, we would be doing so for the upcoming versions too. If people stop paying us, it would be difficult to maintain older releases.
Hope you understand our view on not being able to provide upgrades and support for free lifetime.
Regards
Arvind