So Ubuntu has this model where they pretty much freeze package versions for an Ubuntu release after release, and then they only backport security updates from upstream. There's nothing new here, most distros do it this way. The idea is that this way they can polish the gazillions of package versions
That’s bullshit, it’s still free for the normal lts support. Only if you want support after that you’ll have to pay, or upgrade to the next version for free.