I think that auto-renews are helpful. They aren't painful to most users, provided you have a fair and easy process for cancelling them.
I haven't done the annual subscription since Covid. I felt that I couldn't predict if everyone would just throw in the towel unexpectedly, and we weren't gigging enough during covid to charge it off easily. So I went to monthly subscription. But I found myself having to remember to go in and manually renew, sometimes lapsing by 15 days or so. An auto-renewal would help me. Or at minimum, a renewal reminder.
What people do NOT like is an auto-renewal which requires a 90 day notice of termination. So long as one is given a fair cancellation period, (no more than one month, for instance), it doesn't feel like one is being locked into something they won't use - in my sole opinion.