$30 a year isn't that bad. If I had to guess, it most likely relates to the EPG and possibly the fees for Copy Once support. Now that I finished reading the Kickstarter, it looks like I was right. Under their FAQ, it says, "The subscription gets you everything related to the DVR service. This includes online services, EPG, expanding client support, and protected content management."
It looks like they'll end up fixing a lot of things that are wrong with Windows Media Center, which Microsoft just doesn't care to fix. One example that they bring up in their Kickstarter is: "Padding of start and end times work. For back-to-back recordings on the same channel the recording engine shares the same tuner for both recordings." I don't know how many of you have this problem, but WMC is pretty bad at recording two programs in a row. It usually ends up putting the beginning of the next show at the end of the previous show's recording, and the only way to fix it is to use absolute 10 minute buffers.
However, I do have one problem... WMC also serves as a 10-foot UI. Plex added a launcher to WMC that works really well, and I added a custom launcher that brings up Steam in Big Picture Mode. It seems this is only useful to people wanting a HTPC setup
if they get Kodi integration, and as mentioned, I use Plex. So... there's that.
Also, there doesn't seem to be much information on protected content. One huge issue with WMC is that Copy Once content is restricted to the unit that recorded it
or with any attached extender, which at this point, is pretty much just the Xbox 360. Will this allow for me to record all content on my server (including things like HBO) and watch it on any of my PCs? I'm not trying to pull anything illegal here... I just want to be free to watch my content where I want to watch it.
They do talk about it a bit in their risks section:
Silicondust is required to comply with industry-required protection rules when recording and playing back protected content. It may not be possible to support protected content on all platforms. In the extreme case playing back of protected content may be have to be disabled or discontinued on a specific platform if found not to be secure.
EDIT:
I backed it right now. I haven't fully bought in just yet, but I'll keep my eye on it and raise my pledge accordingly.