Switching is an investment in the business, not a cost. If you’re already locked into proprietary software and you can’t problem solve your way out of it, is it really your business at that point or are you a victim of racketeering? If the business can’t adapt, one way or another it will fail eventually in any case. Not switching means you’re giving more and more away and getting less and less in return. That also is not sustainable.

If you can still do the job your client is paying you for, they can be negotiated with on the terms of how that job gets done and what tools are used for it. That’s what contracts are for.

As far as what people know how to use, they weren’t born with CAD knowledge and things got done before CAD was a thing. New tools can be created, adopted or repurposed. Employees can be trained again, even if they grumble about it.

Regulators and insurance is a sticking point for sure, but they will follow if these tools become more ubiquitous or people start calling their representatives. Those businesses will lag behind, but those businesses are not the majority of businesses.

Change is inevitable and doing something the same way as it’s always been done eventually becomes a major liability.