I had the full version of photoshop cs6 and then moved to the creative cloud a couple months ago when I moved from PC to Mac. There is no difference in photoshop between the two at the moment. The cloud does get updates sooner than the full version, but they should be the same. Where you get in trouble is when the next version comes out, the cloud members should get upgraded automatically where full version owners have to buy the upgrades.
Are you just interested in Photoshop or do you want to use all their other programs? Adobe has a photographer's plan where it's only 10 dollars per month for just Lightroom and Photoshop if you don't need their other stuff.
Also - there are no more versions. CS6 is the last in the line. It is CC or nothing from here on out. Adobe has made this plenty clear.
Acrobat and Lightroom seem to be the only programs sold with version numbers anymore, which alone is a strong enough hint.
You will never be able to buy a Creative Suite package, or a permanent license to something like Photoshop, ever again. (At least, presuming Adobe never backs down from this stance)
As they currently have it planned, there will only be minimal performance/bug updates to CS applications, and all new features are essentially slip-streamed into the CC applications.
I do have a very strong feeling Adobe will eventually pull back and, if not entirely scrub the CC idea, at least offer perhaps bi-annual suite releases. It will be very interesting to see if they maintain both a Creative Suite version system of some sort alongside the Creative Cloud version. How will they determine when new features are no longer added to both "CS7" and CC apps and return to the idea of new features are only in CC?
I suspect, if they did that, they'd probably freeze feature updates after a year, continue to publish feature updates to CC versions, and all feature updates after the feature-freeze would be added to the next, say, "CS8" release.
I just don't know. Adobe is in some very uncharted territory here. Sure, Microsoft offers a similar program (365), but they have thus far maintained retail packages as well.
I do know the distaste for Adobe's approach is extremely high with photographers and other creative professionals. Sure, you have many, especially those who are NOT self-employed, who would get the new Creative Suite either every release (so, every 18 months, that being the average time between CS versions iirc). For those types, the subscription prices pretty much match up, or it is even a little cheaper, compared to constantly buying new suites.
If you get suites or apps every other major release - like many self-employed creative types... this route costs more.
And I'm fairly certain Adobe was well aware of that.
And of course, they'd like to attract those who don't calculate too much and see the low monthly prices as enticing - but they wouldn't have dreamed of actually buying the suites or any of the main suite apps. They probably stick to Photoshop Elements and similar.
I'm definitely worried the $10/month won't stick around after a year, but I certainly hope it does. That's the price of ProSite alone, so that's a nice start right away. Lightroom seems to be getting a mostly annual treatment (along with the underlying ACR), and $120/yr is nearly the price of the retail LR product.
That said, you do lose that permanent status. You stop paying, you stop having the right to use Lightroom (or Photoshop, or whatever is in your particular CC package).
Lightroom 5 should serve me perfectly fine for a long time, should I absolutely have to rely on it. If I get a new camera, that could be one complication. But if they raise the price next year, and I decide to walk away, I at least do still have a permanent Lightroom 5 license, as well as a CS6 suite. I'd definitely miss the improvements in PS CC, but unless I become a serious Photoshop wiz-kid expert in the next year, I doubt dropping to CS6 would seriously impact my final products. I barely get anything worthwhile out of Photoshop as it is right now - but admittedly, I am definitely trying to focus on RAW editing and maybe doing some tweaks to a few photos that really stand out. My pixel-level editing skills are definitely not acceptable, however. That'll come with time.
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